POLITICS / CAUGHT IN A CROSS FIRE : Name of Jane Fonda a Trusty GOP Weapon : Republicans are fond of citing the actress’s affiliation with a liberal Hollywood fund-raising group.

Nearly 20 years after she posed atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, actress Jane Fonda is still caught in a political cross fire.

Republican candidates this year in Texas, Colorado and Indiana have accused their Democratic opponents of insulting war veterans by accepting donations from the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee, a liberal Los Angeles-based fund-raising organization to which Fonda belongs.

Attacks linking Fonda to Democratic candidates have become a favored GOP tactic in recent years. In 1986, for example, opponents of Missouri Senate nominee Harriett Woods labeled her “Hanoi Harriett” for accepting a contribution from Fonda. Woods lost to Republican Christopher Bond.

This year, the attacks have a more organized air to them. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has quietly distributed to GOP candidates information on contributions from the group, as well as film of the actress taken during her 1972 trip to North Vietnam, where she criticized the U.S. involvement in the war.

“We are flirting around with this in a couple of other states,” one GOP source said. “This is still in its infancy.”

Asked about these Republican campaign maneuvers, Fonda released a short statement. It said: “In the words of a fellow actor, ‘there they go again.’ ”

Since its founding during the 1984 presidential campaign, the HWPC has rapidly emerged as one of the nation’s most potent liberal fund-raising organizations. Its 200 members, drawn primarily from the entertainment industry, sponsor glittering events. Federal Election Commission records show that Fonda has contributed $2,500 to the group this year; HWPC officials expect to distribute as much as $400,000 to state and federal candidates through November.

Although Fonda has not been active in the group’s leadership, Republicans have used her affiliation with it to symbolize the organization’s political bent.

The first shot in the current firefight came in May, when Republican congressional candidate Rick Hawks accused Rep. Jill Long (D-Ind.) of an “insult” to veterans because she accepted $5,000 from the HWPC.

Two months later, Republicans attacked Texas Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ann W. Richards for accepting a gift of $13,000 from the HWPC. “If a traitor contributes to you hoping that you’ll believe like they do, that’s part of the game,” said the GOP nominee, Clayton W. Williams Jr.

Both Long and Richards refused to return the HWPC money. But aides quickly revealed that Richards had sent back an earlier personal contribution of $1,000 from Fonda. That disclosure angered Hollywood liberals--who have contributed heavily to Richards--because Fonda had taken back her check on the condition that Richards would not reveal her decision to refuse it, sources said.

Most recently, during a debate earlier this month, Rep. Hank Brown (R-Colo.) criticized his opponent, Josie Heath, for taking $5,000 from the HWPC, also alleging an insult to American veterans.

Hollywood activists and Democratic tacticians insist that the fusillades against Fonda and the fund-raising organization have no bite. Democratic candidates are still calling the Hollywood committee for help.

Other political analysts maintain that Republican campaigns can sometimes evoke Fonda to bolster suggestions that their opponents have more in common with avant-garde Hollywood leftist ideas than the Main Street values of their home states. During the 1986 campaign, for example, Missouri’s Woods was so chastened by the link to Fonda that she refused the HWPC’s offer of a share in the proceeds from a fund-raiser at Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home, at the time the most lucrative Democratic event ever.

“For many people, during the late 1960s and 1970s, Fonda became a symbol of everything that was wrong with America,” said Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington analyst who has studied the impact of culture on politics.

Over the past 15 years, Fonda has softened her image and steadily reduced her political visibility. Two-thirds of the public views her positively, according to a 1987 survey done for the actress.

But the poll showed that some voters, particularly older men, still smolder over her going to North Vietnam, said Richard Maullin, a Democratic political consultant who conducted the survey for Fonda.

The current round of Republican Fonda-bashing also reflects a GOP awareness that liberal Hollywood has assumed a starring financial role with the Democrats. “From a financial standpoint, if we could make Democratic candidates leery of taking money from Hollywood and the liberal elite, we would really help ourselves,” the Republican source said.