DOLE LOOKS TO HARVEST FARM VOTE IN IOWA, OHIO.

Byline: David S. Cloud Chicago Tribune 

While dispatching his running mate to Harlem and other locations rarely frequented by Republicans, Bob Dole has been taking his campaign where he feels comfortable. And, coming from Kansas, Dole feels comfortable talking to farmers.

``I understand agriculture and I need your help,'' Dole told a cheering crowd of nearly 1,000 at a farm show here Wednesday.

In Ohio on Tuesday, Dole bypassed the suburbs around Cleveland, where GOP presidential candidates hoping to win the state have long campaigned, and went instead to the rural town of Shelby. Even local Republican leaders could not explain why Dole came to their town, rather than the vote-rich suburbs.

Perhaps part of the reason is because Dole has to solidify his standing among traditional Republican groups, while he lets vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp try to cut into President Clinton's support among urban, blue-collar voters.

Interviews suggest that Dole has a tough row to hoe in Iowa, where opinion polls show him trailing the president. Part of the reason is that the farm economy is as robust as it has been for many years, and farmers are inclined to attribute the high prices for corn and soybeans at least partly to the Clinton administration's market-opening trade policies.

``Clinton's done good for trade, and prices have been as high as they've ever been,'' said Dave Jellings, who farms 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans.

Jellings plans to vote for Dole, but he says that many of his neighbors are leaning toward Clinton. ``A lot of people think (Dole) is too old,'' he said.

But Dole does have a long legislative record that farmers, one of the most politically aware groups of voters, know and appreciate. ``He's always spoken well for the farmer,'' said Adrian Ploegstra, who farms 340 acres in Polk County.

Dole reminded the crowd that he helped pass the Freedom to Farm Act earlier this year, saying that the Clinton administration had been ``AWOL'' during that debate.

The measure, which is popular in farm country, allows farmers to plant largely free from government acreage controls as price supports are gradually phased out.

Dole also outlined his tax-cut plan, drawing a parallel with former Republican candidate Steve Forbes' flat-tax proposal, which was popular with voters during the Iowa caucuses.

``I've looked at the electoral maps and I've looked and looked, and (the election) could come down to Iowa,'' Dole told the crowd.

Meanwhile, negotiations between the Clinton and Dole campaigns over the format of the coming debates continue. Dole press secretary Nelson Warfield said the Clinton camp had provided a debate contract ``which contained details that we hadn't agreed to,'' and others previously agreed upon had been left out.

For example, the contract omitted a provision sought by the Dole campaign that the debates would begin two hours earlier than scheduled if there is a major baseball playoff game on the night of the debate, the first of which is scheduled for Oct. 6 in Hartford, Conn.

Dole's campaign schedule will slow in coming days to give him time to prepare for the first debate. Dole will spend time at his condominium in Bal Harbor, Fla.

``Every student in America who has ever crammed for an exam will understand why Senator Dole would want to spend a little time preparing for the debate,'' Warfield said.

Dole also responded to suggestions that the GOP is diverting money from his presidential campaign to finance congressional races, saying: ``It's not true. Chairman (Haley) Barbour and his spokesman, Ed Gillispie have gone on the record to rebut one of the silliest rumors so far in this campaign.''

The Republican nominee began Wednesday at a rally in St. Louis, noting that the city originally was scheduled to be the site of the first presidential debate, but was dropped because it came too close to Clinton's speech to the United Nations.