DOLE CHALLENGES CLINTON ON CRIME : PRESIDENT BIG ON TALK, LIGHT ON ACTION, SAYS HOPEFUL.

Byline: John King Associated Press 

Bob Dole assailed President Clinton's crime-fighting record Tuesday as ``heavy on promises, light on accomplishments'' and reassured California Republicans he would not abandon the state as the GOP ticket did in 1992.

``We're going to spend a lot of time in this state,'' Dole told a boisterous evening rally in Ontario. ``We are going to carry California in November.''

In California, Dole delivered a reprise of the speech he gave two weeks ago announcing he was resigning from the Senate to campaign for president full time. ``My campaign is about telling the truth, telling the truth and doing what is right,'' Dole said, questioning Clinton's credibility on issues from balancing the budget and cutting taxes to reforming welfare and fighting crime.

``If he were re-elected he would be right back with more health care reform and tax increases and more regulation and all the things you don't want,'' Dole said. ``We need a president who puts his trust in the people and not in the government.''

Earlier, in Colorado, Dole focused exclusively on the crime issue, standing in a driving rain before a memorial to slain police officers, to assert that Clinton has failed to back up tough talk on crime with action.

``He understands what he needs to say, but he just doesn't grasp what he needs to do,'' Dole said.

Dole was to spend today in California before heading to Illinois and Ohio, all part of his campaign's state-by-state effort to improve his standing in major electoral battlegrounds.

Clinton has a healthy lead in California, the anchor of the incumbent's re-election strategy, but GOP Gov. Pete Wilson said Dole has vowed to spend the time and money it will take to make the state competitive. ``He'll do it,'' Wilson said.

Full-time campaigning is a luxury afforded by Dole's decision to resign from the Senate. But Tuesday's events got off to a rough start when Dole had to speed through his speech because a raw, steady rain sent much of his crowd outside the Aurora Police Department rushing for cover.

Nonetheless, Dole delivered a pointed critique in which he said Clinton was sending the wrong signal by naming too many liberals as federal judges and prosecutors.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee then said it was a disgrace that Clinton political adviser Dick Morris had done polling work for a man accused of two rapes. Morris conducted polling that was used in an unsuccessful effort to move the suspect's trial to another town.

``The president's top political adviser is also helping an accused rapist beat the rap,'' Dole said. ``The truth is that if Bill Clinton had done more to fight crime, if he'd appointed people serious about fighting crime, he wouldn't need a high-priced PR man to help him with the issue.''

The White House said last week that Clinton had received a commitment from Morris that he would do no other work while advising the president. ``Bob Dole should worry more about explaining why he wanted to take cops off the street and put more guns on the street,'' said Clinton campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart.

Outlining his own views, Dole promised an array of tougher federal policies if elected president, including an end to parole for violent crimes, mandatory drug testing of federal inmates and longer sentences for child pornography, including life for a third offense.