DOLE ATTACKS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

Inserting affirmative action into the race for president, Sen. Bob Dole backed a California ballot initiative Sunday because he he said he favors tying state hiring and college admissions to merit, not race or gender preference.

Dole, the expected Republican nominee for president, also departed from his attacks on President Clinton to urge Texas billionaire Ross Perot to stay out of the running as a third party candidate.

"Let's not get into the race to make it more difficult for Republicans," Dole told supporters at the Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. "Let's make it easier for the Republicans to send Bill Clinton back to Little Rock."

On affirmative action, Dole distinguished himself squarely from Clinton, who generally has supported such programs.

"There are success stories all around us - and it was all done with merit," Dole told a crowd made up mostly of Vietnamese-Americans in Orange County's Little Saigon.

"That's what this country should be about. It's all about merit and not preferences," the Kansas Republican said.

Dole long has supported the California Civil Rights Initiative, which is expected to qualify for the November ballot. He has introduced legislation in the Senate that would accomplish the same goals, by eliminating affirmative action programs in the awarding of federal contracts.

Clinton last year called for an evaluation of those programs once they have met their goals.

The state initiative has drawn strong support in the Asian community, at least in part because admission goals for Asians already have been exceeded at the University of California campuses.

Dole's remarks came at the end of a three-day campaign swing leading up to California's primary election Tuesday, in which he is considered a favorite over TV commentator Pat Buchanan.

Sunday, Buchanan also campaigned in California, touring a Carpinteria avocado ranch where he renewed his criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Buchanan maintained destructive insects could be brought into the United States along with Mexican avocados.

"The Mexican avocados are very much infested with a variety of pests, from the Medfly to the weevil to mites," Buchanan said, standing on a flatbed truck at 45-acre Bliss Lands Avocado Grove, some 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Speaking to about 40 supporters at what was billed as a news conference, Buchanan asserted that Mexican fruits are treated with pesticides banned in America.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said no decision has been reached on whether the Mexican avocados would be allowed into the country.

Earlier in the day, Buchanan continued to hedge on whether he would endorse Dole after the GOP convention in August.

Buchanan said on the television show "Meet the Press" that he wants to wait to see whom Dole selects as a vice presidential candidate as well as what is in the GOP platform.

For Dole, the emphasis on Clinton continued a theme he has stressed since clinching the nomination last week.

Dole also sought to downplay the efforts of the Clinton administration on California.

"He comes out here with little pockets of money," Dole said. "But no state has paid a bigger price for the broken promises of Bill Clinton than California."

In particular, Dole contended that the state has lost 125,000 jobs as a result of defense cuts pushed by Clinton and the previous Democratic-controlled Congress.

Dole also insisted that he would not ignore California during the coming campaign as former President Bush did in 1992.

"We're not going to write off California in 1996," Dole said. "It's right on, not write off. We are going to fight to the bitter end."