DOLE TO ATTACK CLINTON'S ECONOMIC RECORD.

Byline: Richard W. Stevenson The New York Times

Bob Dole's campaign advisers say they are planning a stepped-up attack on President Clinton's economic record, having concluded that despite low unemployment and inflation there is enough anxiety among voters about job security and stagnant incomes to leave the administration vulnerable.

Their strategy, they said, would be to argue that Clinton does not deserve credit for the ways that the economy is performing well, and should be blamed for tax increases and spending policies that have undermined growth, creating a climate of insecurity and forcing workers to run harder just to stay in place.

The advisers said the economic campaign would begin in earnest this fall, after Dole announces his own economic policy package, probably about the time the Republican National Convention is held in August. The party's likely presidential nominee is expected to embrace a tax-cutting package as the centerpiece of a ``pro-growth'' economic platform, although he has yet to decide on details.

If the Dole campaign follows through on the plan, it would be seeking to turn to its advantage - or at least to neutralize - an issue that the administration has long considered one of its strengths.

The president often boasts of the economy's performance in creating more than eight million jobs since he took office, most of them paying good wages. He says the current combination of low inflation and unemployment with steady growth is one that no other administration has sustained since the 1960s.

Democrats said they viewed the Dole camp as shifting away from a strategy of hoping that the economy would weaken this year, which has not happened, to one of asking whether this is the best the economy can do - a question they said they are happy to debate.

``If they want to go head to head on the economic record, let's rock and roll,'' said Gene Sperling, an economic adviser to the president.

While Dole regularly criticizes Clinton for raising taxes and for not being truly committed to balancing the federal budget, he has only occasionally articulated broader economic themes. He has spoken only in passing about such issues as corporate downsizing, and has offered few specific prescriptions for improving the nation's long-term economic performance or addressing worker anxiety.