Back Home, Clinton Has Strong Support : Campaign: Many see the Democratic candidate as helping to build up the image of Arkansas. But his critics attack his record as governor.

People in Gov. Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hot Springs are only half-joking when they say the town could become a presidential hangout.

“Obviously, it would turn us into another Kennebunkport or Plains,” said Mayor Melinda Baran, referring to President Bush’s home in Maine and former President Jimmy Carter’s home in Georgia.

The mood here in Arkansas about their native son’s presidential candidacy is decidedly upbeat. Voters who have elected him five times see his candidacy as a chance for the state to put aside some of the baggage it has carried for years--last in this, next to last in that, rural, backwoods, unsophisticated, bigoted.

“We need a little better national image and I think Bill Clinton might just help,” said Roy Murphy, a Hot Springs engineer who has known the governor for more than 40 years. “The groundswell here is to support him.”

One adage is that Bill Clinton is either going to be President or he is going to be governor, and either way, it is not smart to get on his bad side. Clinton’s current term expires in 1995.

But Clinton does have his critics here. Some have even taken out radio ads in New Hampshire, the site of the first primary Feb. 18, saying: “He’s no friend of the middle class. Please, Gov. Clinton, don’t do to America what you’ve done for Arkansas.”

The unsubstantiated tabloid-driven allegations that Clinton had extramarital affairs do not play a role in the criticism. “It was tossed on the table in the last election (for governor) and never received three minutes’ worth of anyone’s time or attention,” said Larry Wallace, a wealthy Little Rock businessman and longtime Democrat who also counts Clinton’s last Republican opponent, Sheffield Nelson, as a close friend.

But Clinton’s record as governor dates back to 1978, and, therefore, is a natural target for his political foes.

Already three of his rivals for the Democratic nomination--Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.--have used Arkansas’ ills against him during the New Hampshire campaign. In a recent debate, for example, Harkin cited a study ranking the state last in job safety.

Clinton questioned the accuracy of the study, then retaliated. “In 1989 . . . Arkansas had fewer workplace accidents per hours worked than Iowa or Nebraska,” he said, zeroing in on both Harkin and Kerrey.

Clinton contends that he has improved the quality of such important areas as education and health care and that he would not have been elected five times with a dissatisfied electorate. But his critics say the progress on those and other issues is not nearly as great as he would have voters believe.

Here is a rundown of his record:

Education

Starting in 1983, Clinton called for teacher competency testing, which caused a near-wholesale revolt in the Arkansas teaching community. He funded his programs with a 1-cent sales tax, the first of several tax hikes that have been passed during his tenure. (Even so, the state has one of the lowest tax burdens in the country--it ranks 42nd. Clinton maintains that raising the income tax is prohibitively difficult because it requires approval of three-fourths of the Legislature.)

Other education improvements followed, including chemistry and biology courses in all high schools, $1,000 yearly college scholarships for middle-income and poor students who met certain qualifications and, most recently, a $5,000-a-year raise for teachers. Per-pupil spending has nearly tripled since 1983; the dropout rate is among the lowest in the South, and more high school students are going on to college.

But it is also true that Arkansas started far back in the pack and still lags behind the rest of the nation in almost all educational measures. The now-defunct Arkansas Gazette last year pointed out state students scored higher than the national average on the Scholastic Aptitude Test in 1991 but only 6% of the state’s graduating students took the exam.

Health Care

Clinton’s programs have decreased the welfare rolls, provided health care to poor children and expanded prenatal care. But last year he found himself in the embarrassing position of being sued for the state’s alleged abuse of children’s rights. The lawsuit set forth a long list of grievances, including failing to provide necessary health care to children in foster homes and tolerating crowded, substandard homes in the foster network. The governor appointed a task force to study the issue.

In another incident earlier this year, a group of protesters in wheelchairs shackled themselves to Clinton’s office to protest Medicaid cuts. The governor, on vacation in South Carolina, immediately restored the money.

Labor Relations

One of Clinton’s toughest antagonists is J. Bill Becker, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, who described the governor as “the kind of guy who will pat you on the back and then not follow through with a promise.”

With very little prompting, Becker will run through a litany of Clinton’s alleged shortcomings: promoting low-wage industry; opting for regressive taxation while giving major breaks to big business; ignoring job safety despite the state’s dead-last national ranking, and failing to push for a state civil rights act, making Arkansas and Alabama the only states without one.

Becker said Clinton had consistently angered unions by advertising the state’s “competitive” wages and right-to-work law in an attempt to lure industry to the state. He also complained that the average hourly wage has dropped $1.15, to $8.89, since Clinton took office.

Clinton has responded by saying that he has done his best to bring jobs to Arkansas and that the situation in the state has improved since he took office.

The Environment

Clinton will have a difficult time portraying himself as an environmentally correct candidate. The 1991-92 Green Index, compiled by the Institute for Southern Studies, ranked Arkansas 48th in overall environmental conditions and 50th in environmental protection. Clinton contends that the information is out of date. But his battles with environmentalists continue. In January, he approved a plan to incinerate 28,300 barrels of toxic waste at the Jacksonville Superfund site, north of Little Rock.

Despite the criticism, even Clinton’s antagonists back home tend to like him as a person. Take Becker. “I personally like him,” he said. “I just dislike the way he operates.”

Or listen to John R. Starr, curmudgeonly managing editor of the influential Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, whose newspaper once published a picture with this caption: “Bozo the Clown (right) and Gov. Bill Clinton during happier times.” Starr grudgingly conceded in a recent interview that his favorite target is the best candidate in the Democratic field. “It’s impossible to dislike Bill Clinton,” he said. “He’s just a big kid. Charming. He will tell you with great skill exactly what you want to hear.”