Clinton Plans to Accelerate His Campaign : Democrats: The governor seeks to avoid complacency and fend off expected attacks from Bush. He tells Iowa farmers his administration would be on their side.

Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton, wary of sitting on his lead in the polls, plans to intensify his campaigning in the final five weeks before Election Day and aggressively spell out why he should win the White House.

This move, he and his staff acknowledge, is aimed at avoiding complacency within their ranks as much as at fending off expected attacks from President Bush.

For example, Clinton appeared Sunday at a campaign rally and fund-raiser sponsored by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and accused Bush of playing election-year politics with farm policies.

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Clinton visited Iowa earlier in the campaign, including it on one of his joint bus tours with running mate Al Gore. But some farm groups have contended that agricultural issues have been short-changed as both candidates sought support from suburban voters.

This time Clinton’s appearance in the largely rural state, and in South Dakota later in the day, was designed to send an aggressive message that farmers would find a Clinton White House more hospitable to their concerns than the current Administration.

“He had his chance to put government on your side,” Clinton said at a rally in Indianola, a community of 10,800 people south of Des Moines. “Give me the chance and I will.

“Mr. Bush will not change with the times; I will,” he told a couple of thousand people who sat on a rolling green field and ate grilled pork sandwiches. “I want to put back government on the side of ordinary people whether they work on farms or ranches or in businesses and factories.”

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Clinton accused the White House of failing to heed the concerns of farmers and other ordinary Americans until Bush discovered he might lose the election.

Recently Bush has unveiled or stepped up several programs to aid farmers, including more wheat subsidies, disaster relief for rice farmers and expanded export incentives.

Clinton came to Iowa to help Harkin, a former primary rival, raise money to pay debts from his failed effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination--and to headline campaign efforts for state Democrats. But the opportunity offered Clinton a platform to signify support for family farmers.

Aides said Clinton’s rural policies included increased federal economic assistance for rural communities, expanded foreign markets for farm products, affordable health insurance and improved rural education programs.

“I’m a builder, not a wrecker,” the Arkansas governor said, pounding the podium to add emphasis to his comments. “I’m sick and tired of the Washington blame game and the finger-pointing and the paralysis. I think it’s time we got up off our duffs and went to work to bring this country back and make something of it again.”

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Clinton also made plans to cope with the potential re-entry of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, who is to meet with his 50 state coordinators today in Dallas. Perot dropped out of the race last July on the day Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination--saying he had concluded that he could not win and that the Democratic Party was revitalized.

But last week, he complained that neither Bush nor Clinton is adequately addressing the federal deficit and said he had made a mistake in calling off his own candidacy. Hence, the consultation with his state coordinators. Perot says he expects to decide whether to re-enter the race by the end of the week.

Both Bush and Clinton are sending delegations to Dallas. Among Clinton’s eight representatives will be campaign Chairman Mickey Kantor, civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan Jr. and financier Felix Rohatyn, who is credited with helping New York City out of its past economic difficulties. Clinton said Rohatyn “knows about why we should get the economy growing before we risk a recession by overdoing debt reductions.”

“He and I both have more credibility on deficit reduction than George Bush,” Clinton said.

And, in a late-night chat with reporters Saturday as he traveled from Washington to Little Rock, Clinton acknowledged he had slowed the pace of his campaign in recent weeks to preserve his energy for anticipated debates with Bush and to refresh himself for the final month of campaigning.

But now that the debates seem in a deep freeze, Clinton said he is unwilling to sit on his lead in several state and national polls, including the Los Angeles Times Poll that showed Clinton leading Bush by 21 points in California.

“That’s one way I could lose,” Clinton said. “Now it’s time to gin it up again.”

Bush rejected a debate format proposed by a bipartisan commission; Clinton accepted it. So far, two scheduled debates have been canceled; two more are still on the calendar and the commission has proposed one more. But the issue seems no closer to compromise than it did earlier this month, when the first debate--set for Sept. 22--was canceled.

Clinton’s running mate promoted another issue dear to the Democrats Sunday--health-care reform. “We want to extend universal health insurance to all Americans,” Gore told about 200 people at the Heminger Community Senior Center in Akron, Ohio.

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The Tennessee senator also chastised the Bush Administration for ignoring the recommendations of the nonpartisan National Commission on AIDS, citing last week’s resignation from the panel of former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin (Magic) Johnson. Johnson said Bush had “dropped the ball” and complained that the epidemic “cannot be fought with lip service and photo opportunities.” He declared his opposition to Bush’s reelection and made clear Sunday that he is endorsing Clinton.

Clinton, in Iowa, mentioned that he had met with Johnson at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner Saturday night in Washington.

“I may not make every decision right,” if elected, Clinton said. “I will make some mistakes. (But) I will not drop the ball.”

Times staff writer Ed Chen, in Ohio, contributed to this story.