Heartland Willing to Take Fresh Look at Clinton Bid : Campaign: Arkansan stirs little enthusiasm in a key ‘swing’ district. But there is strong sentiment for change.

Memo to Bill Clinton: Dan Petitt isn’t going to vote for President Bush in November, but he’s “not too crazy about” you, either.

Although the graying, 42-year-old telephone repairman thinks the nation is “in bad shape,” he’s concerned about the “character” questions that have plagued your Democratic presidential campaign, and he doesn’t really know where you stand. If the election were held tomorrow, the St. Joseph resident says, he might well pull the lever for H. Ross Perot, assuming the Texas billionaire launches an independent presidential candidacy.

“I would probably go for him,” Petitt says defiantly.

But the Clinton camp has no reason to give up on voters like Petitt. He has only just begun thinking about the election and he’s angry enough at Bush to consider becoming “a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat--at least for this year.”

Would he vote for Clinton in November, despite his current doubts, if the Arkansas governor and Bush were the only ones on the ballot? “Probably,” he muses, “just because we need a change.”

This northwest Missouri congressional district--the state’s 6th--isn’t a bad place to take such soundings. Although the region is traditionally Democratic, it has gone Republican in the last three presidential elections. Roughly paralleling his popular vote nationwide, Ronald Reagan carried the district by eight percentage points in 1980 and 22 points in ’84. It remained in the GOP column in 1988, but by the barest of margins--Bush won here by a scant 205 votes.

In the parlance of politicians, it has emerged as a swing district--one in which voter loyalty is up for grabs. It is in these districts that close presidential elections are decided.

Besides St. Joseph, the sprawling, 27-county area covers everything from scruffy, depressed farming towns to middle-income and upscale sections of Kansas City. And the issues on the minds of voters here are similar to those raised in other parts of the country.

District residents are angry about the high unemployment rate and concerned that too many jobs are going overseas and that the United States is sending too much aid abroad while there are serious problems at home. They despair that the federal budget deficit hasn’t been brought under control. They are disappointed with Bush for what they perceive as his failure to deal with these and a variety of other problems, from health care to education and the homeless.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been this concerned before,” Linda Blakely, a Chillicothe, Mo., housewife, says.

The message from dozens of interviews with district residents is that while they were disappointed with the array of Democratic presidential candidates that surfaced this year, they haven’t yet counted out Clinton, the party’s presumptive nominee. And they express a willingness to take a fresh look at the Arkansan when and if he wins the Democratic nomination.

“People aren’t enthusiastic about Clinton, but they’re becoming reconciled that he’s the candidate,” says Bob Slater, a St. Joseph utility executive who ran for Congress here in 1978 and has remained a Democratic activist. Although Bush still has the edge, he believes, Clinton still could eke out a majority, especially if the economy continues to be weak.

“Right now, if ‘none-of-the-above’ were on the ballot, he would fare very well,” Slater says. “What happens over the next few months is going to be what sways people here.”

Clinton’s job here won’t be easy. Although some voters believe that stories about his marital problems, his avoidance of the military draft and his brief experimentation with marijuana have been “overblown” by the press and TV networks, many in this region of old-fashioned values are genuinely troubled by the incidents.

“His lifestyle just doesn’t compare to the way most people here have to live,” says Francis Clark, a Linn County, Mo., farmer, shaking his head sadly.

Others complain that Clinton has appeared too wily--or at least not fully candid--with the electorate in explaining his mistakes. “Right now he seems too slick, not real straightforward,” says Kathy Huffer, a St. Joseph housewife and former teacher who regrets voting for Bush in 1988 and is looking for a Democratic alternative.

To win her over, Huffer says, Clinton “needs to be more open, to admit his faults. What I want to see is that he’s learned something” from his experiences.

Even more troublesome for Clinton is a widespread apprehension that he either doesn’t have what it takes to handle the presidency or that he can’t be trusted to keep his campaign promises.

“He seems to have a lot more vision (than Bush) right now, but I don’t know if what he’s saying is something he’s going to do or whether it’s just for the TV sound-bites,” says Mike Adkins, a 29-year-old restaurant worker in St. Joseph. “I’m going to have to see a lot more before I make up my mind.”

Even Democratic Party activists are hesitant. At a congressional district caucus earlier this week Clinton won only 50% of the votes in a decidedly unenthusiastic contest, despite his emergence as the clear front-runner nationally. The other 50% went to uncommitted delegates, such as David Mason, a teacher from the Kansas City suburbs. “I just don’t think we can win with (Clinton),” Mason says.

He and other party activists worry that a ticket headed by Clinton would cause many district Democrats to sit out the fall election, hurting the party at the state and local levels.

But the informal sampling of district opinion suggests that several factors still may work in Clinton’s favor:

* Many voters defiantly dismiss the disclosures about Clinton’s personal life as irrelevant. “If it’s OK with his wife, it’s OK with me,” says Bonnie Thomsen, a Kansas City-area government worker, referring to the allegations of infidelity that have buffeted Clinton.

* Clinton’s unimpressive showing in the Democratic caucuses so far is partly a result of a tactical decision by the area’s strong unions to remain technically “uncommitted” in hopes of exercising more leverage in the nomination process. And while many union loyalists dislike Clinton because Arkansas remains a right-to-work state--meaning union membership is not compulsory in union shops--signs of labor support for him are growing. Earlier this week, an influential group of AFL-CIO officials urged that the national federation’s governing board endorse him.

* Local political strategists expect Clinton eventually will receive a major boost from the widespread voter disenchantment with Bush and the deep-seated anti-incumbent sentiment that is pervading politics here. These strategists also note that Midwestern voters--who regard casting their ballots as a patriotic duty--aren’t likely to stay home on polling-day, no matter how unenthusiastic they may be about Clinton.

“They’re trying to like him,” says Buck Farrenkopf, a Brookfield, Mo., barber and county commissioner whose shop serves as a barometer for political sentiment there. “I think they’re ready for a change.”

Indeed, disappointment with Bush seems the district’s overriding political constant.

“I haven’t been very impressed with George Bush, and I voted for him last time,” says Donald Lee Smith, a 37-year-old production supervisor. “I don’t think George Bush cares about people in this country very much--just about his friends there in Washington.”

In a sentiment heard frequently, Danielle Farthing, a 25-year-old hair stylist, ticks off a litany of complaints about the President’s performance: “The economy, the violence, the everything.”

Taken together, “It’s not very good,” she says. “I think it’s time for him to get out and give someone else a shot.”