DOLE REPLACES TWO KEY AIDES IN ATTEMPT TO SHARPEN IMAGE.

Byline: Katharine Q. Seelye The New York Times

Less than nine weeks before Election Day, Bob Dole's presidential campaign squeezed out two of its top strategists Thursday in a shake-up that reflects the campaign's continuing struggle to project a winning message and image.

The departure of the two aides, Don Sipple and Mike Murphy, shows the extent of long-standing divisions within the campaign. And they come at a time when Dole, the Republican nominee, appears stalled, well behind President Clinton in public opinion polls, and when the campaign must make crucial decisions about how to spend the approximately $40 million it plans to devote to television advertising.

The resignation of Sipple, who was himself a replacement for the campaign's previous chief strategist, also underscores how difficult it has been for the campaign to overcome some of Dole's fundamental disadvantages - his age (now 73), his long career in Washington, the lopsided preference of female voters for Clinton, and the Republican candidate's links to the unpopular Congress and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

At the same time, the campaign has found that Dole's strengths - his perceived trustworthiness, integrity and character - have not been presented to voters in a way that makes a difference.

``There is no defining image of Dole on television,'' said one Republican close to the campaign who has been critical of Sipple's advertisements but acknowledged fundamental flaws in the candidate. ``It is very hard to convince people that Dole is someone other than the person they have been watching float around for the last three decades.''

The campaign named three new media strategists Thursday - Alex Castellanos, Greg Stevens and Chris Mottola - with the intention of creating advertising that will present Dole's tax-cutting plan in sharper relief and make more aggressive contrasts between the former senator and the president.

The three new men, all of whom have reputations as hard-hitting strategists, have worked on a number of congressional and Senate campaigns as well as presidential primaries, although they have not worked together previously as a team.

Dole advisers said that Paul J. Manafort, a longtime Republican strategist who managed the party's national convention in San Diego last month for Dole, would be integrating the overall message between the paid advertising and the ``free'' media - news articles in the press and appearances in television news broadcasts.

A top campaign official also said that next month the campaign would spend ``more money on advertising than any campaign in presidential history.'' While he would not disclose the monthly breakdown, he said the Dole campaign would spend about $40 million on advertising through Election Day on Nov. 5.

Still, the departure of Murphy and Sipple caused Republicans around the country, including congressional candidates, to react with deep concern over the campaign's prospects, according to William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, a conservative Republican publication.

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PHOTO Don Sipple

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