RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : Poll Finds Voter Support for Bush Eroded by Riots : Campaign: The latest Times Mirror survey shows President in a virtual dead heat with Clinton and Perot.

The Los Angeles riots have sharply reduced support for President Bush, according to a new nationwide poll that shows him drawing only 33% of the vote in a three-man trial run, locked in a virtual dead heat with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Texas billionaire Ross Perot.

Clinton and Perot each were favored by 30% of the respondents in the Times Mirror poll, which was released Monday. The survey of 1,301 respondents, conducted between April 30--the day the riots erupted--and May 2, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Only two weeks ago, a U.S. News & World Report poll gave Bush significant leads over both Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and Perot, who now is widely expected to run as an independent candidate. That poll gave Bush 40%, Clinton, 29%, and Perot, 24%.

The Times Mirror poll also showed a statistical dead heat in a two-man race, with Bush drawing 46% to Clinton’s 43%. Only about a third of the President’s supporters said that they “strongly” backed him, and only about a fourth of Clinton’s said that they strongly supported him.

The poll, which found that the public followed the riots and the Rodney G. King case verdict even more closely than they did the Persian Gulf War, generally was bad news for Bush. Only two-thirds of the Republicans supported the President. Among self-identified independents, Perot led him 37% to 31%.

Only a quarter of the respondents viewed Bush as the best candidate to deal with the country’s racial problems. Thirty-one percent named Clinton and 13% named Perot.

Only a third of the voters said they thought there was a chance that conditions in the country will “get better” if Bush is reelected. Slightly more than half said that there was “no chance” conditions will improve.

A plurality of 41% of the respondents viewed Clinton as best able to deal with problems of the poor. Only 15% named the President, and 22% named Perot. Sixty-one percent said that the next president should give higher priority to the problems of poor people than to the problems of middle-income people.

By a much smaller margin, Clinton also was viewed as the candidate who could best deal with problems of the middle class.

The respondents held fairly strong views on social issues that Clinton has emphasized in his campaign. Eight of 10 agreed with the statement, “It’s really true that the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer.” And nine of 10 agreed that “our society should do what is necessary to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.”

A little more than half agreed that “the government should help more needy people, even if it means going deeper in debt.”

Clinton’s unfavorable rating remained high--43%, compared with Bush’s 42%--and he drew support from only 56% of Democrats. Twenty-eight percent of Democrats said they would vote for Perot if he is on the ballot. Among independents Perot led Clinton, 37% to 23%.

Given the choice, 41% of the respondents said they would like to see the Democrats nominate Clinton, 11% said former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown and 40% said “some other candidate.”

Seven of 10 respondents were not satisfied with the choice of this year’s presidential candidates.

Perot’s best ratings came from groups who generally favor Republicans: men, college graduates and people with household incomes of more than $50,000 a year. Among whites, males, the affluent and college graduates, he was in a statistical tie with Bush.

But the poll showed that voters know little about the positions Perot favors. Only 7% said that they knew a lot about what he stands for, while 34% said that they knew a little. But 58% said that they knew nothing or only some.

Asked “what comes to mind when you think about what Ross Perot stands for,” a third of the respondents did not answer or said that they did not know, and the rest gave a wide variety of answers. “Successful businessman/capitalist” was mentioned the most often, by 16%, and “has a lot of money/is a billionaire” was next, with 12%.

News of the Los Angeles riots was being followed “very closely” by seven of 10 of the respondents, and another 22% were following it fairly closely--a level of public attentiveness rarely matched in Times Mirror polls, exceeding public attention to the Gulf War.