DOLE, CLINTON CAMPS TACKLE DRUG ISSUES.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

The presidential campaign battle shifted to character Friday as the Dole and Clinton camps used the issue of teen-age drug abuse to deliver a broader message about their opponents.

Each side released advertisements attacking the other's commitment to fighting drugs, but the statistics took a back seat to images and charges designed to paint both President Clinton and Bob Dole in a negative light.

The latest barrage of dueling television advertisements came as Dole's aides said that it was increasingly unlikely the Republican presidential candidate would end up contesting California, given his poor standings in public opinion polls there.

While the aides emphasized that no final decisions had been made, they said they expected the campaign to make enough of an effort in the state to keep Clinton off guard and to protect Republican congressional candidates.

Dole, following through on a week in which he repeatedly assailed Clinton's drug record on the stump, released his advertisement showing the president, in an MTV interview, saying he would inhale marijuana if he had it to do over again.

The Clinton campaign, which has been braced for an attack on the incumbent's character, responded rapidly. Clinton was campaigning in Portland, Ore., where Joe Lockhart, the campaign press secretary, called the Dole advertisement ``a desperate act'' and tried to revive images of the Kansas Republican as having a mean streak.

``They've now decided that the only way they can turn is to make this personal, to make this negative, to make this nasty,'' Lockhart said. ``If you look at Bob Dole's history, he's tried this before and he's failed.''

He cited Dole's 1974 Senate race against Dr. William R. Roy, whom Dole accused of performing abortions. Lockhart said Dole at the time was ``pioneering abortion attack politics.''

The Clinton campaign planned to broadcast its own 30-second advertisement that attempts to turn Dole's new anti-drug slogan, ``Just Don't Do It,'' against him by listing a number of anti-drug programs that it says he has opposed over the years.

Dole's advertisement is one of the sharpest yet on Clinton. It talks about the increase in teen-age drug use since 1992, a statistic that Dole has been riding hard, accusing the president of ``moral confusion.'' The advertisement says he cut the White House drug office staff by 83 percent. The ad ends by showing a clip from a 1992 MTV forum in which a young man asked Clinton: ``If you had it to do over again, would you inhale?''

``Sure, if I could,'' Clinton replied. ``I tried before.''

Dole's advertisement is factually correct, although it fails to note that the money for the drug office was subsequently restored.

Alex Castellanos, the producer of the Dole advertisement, defended the use of the MTV interview.

``The Bill Clinton you see in this spot is the one that wants to be loved and accepted by everyone,'' he said. ``And here he was with these kids, and he became one of them. This is not what you would do in front of your kids as a parent. And the `first parent' should not do it in front of our kids, either.''

The Clinton campaign's new advertisement says, ``To fight drugs, all Bob Dole offers are slogans: Just don't do it.''

It continues: ``But look at what he's done - voted to cut the president's school anti-drug efforts by 50 percent.'' The ad goes on to cite other stands by Dole, saying he opposed the creation of the office to oversee efforts against drugs, opposed student loans and opposed Clinton's plan to limit cigarette advertisements that target teen-agers.