7 Governors Help Clinton Open Campaign Trip Through West : Democrats: Arkansan stresses themes that he hopes are shared by the region’s voters. The nominee’s stops today include Orange County.

Democratic nominee Bill Clinton opened a three-day swing through Western states Wednesday--which is probably his last trip west of Little Rock, Ark., until Election Day--urging the region’s voters to “bring can-do back to the White House.”

Escorted by seven Western Democratic governors, Clinton kicked off his trip at an outdoor rally in Pueblo, Colo., where he entered to the strains of the theme from “The Magnificent Seven”--the Steve McQueen Western--and hailed himself as the candidate of “common sense” and of a “new Democratic Party.”

From talk of “reasonable, businesslike” management of government to a call for government that “stays out of our private lives” to a quick mention of his support for the death penalty--something he rarely talks about in his stump speeches--Clinton played up the notes that he hopes will harmonize with the views of the region’s voters.

At the same time, he downplayed others that might cost him support, gliding quickly past his support for a mandated waiting period before a person can buy a handgun, for example.

Clinton continues his Western swing today in Washington, Oregon and Orange County, Calif., where he plans to attend a large get-out-the-vote rally in Costa Mesa.

But, although Clinton and his aides clearly believe that they can defeat Bush in a region the Republicans have dominated for years, the third candidate in the race was increasingly on his mind. In all three of his rallies, Clinton took clear shots at independent candidate Ross Perot, trying to appropriate Perot’s issues for himself.

In a sign of Clinton’s continuing uncertainty about how to handle Perot, he carefully avoided mentioning the billionaire’s name. “There’s just one candidate in this race who’s ever balanced a government budget” or “passed a law to limit the influence of lobbyists,” Clinton said.

“It’s not George Bush, it’s not the other guy. It’s Bill Clinton,” he said at the final rally of the day here.

Although Clinton has kept his fire focused mainly on Bush, he cautiously has moved toward more direct criticism of Perot in the last few days, particularly in states where his strategists believe that Perot’s support could cost the Democrats votes. Polls indicate that Perot is stronger in the Rocky Mountain states--particularly Colorado--than anywhere else in the country, with some surveys showing him breaking 20% in Colorado.

Clinton aides believe that one of the main constraints holding Perot’s support down is the belief among many voters that the Texas billionaire cannot win. If Perot begins moving up in the polls, that constraint could weaken, they fear.

Perot’s style is “very appealing to the Western, John Wayne gunslinger type,” Colorado Gov. Roy Romer told reporters. “ ‘Just let me walk down Main Street and I’ll settle all this.’ ” Clinton, by contrast, cannot do that, Romer argued. “He has to speak responsibly; Perot doesn’t.”

The other major fear in the Democratic camp is that Clinton supporters will slacken in their efforts if they begin to think the election is sewn up. “I’ve made my living off people who thought they had an election won two weeks before the voting,” Clinton strategist James Carville said recently. “I don’t want to let anyone make his living off me.”

At every stop, Clinton takes pains to remind audiences, as he did when he stopped for an airport rally in Cheyenne, that “this election is not over anywhere.”

For that reason, Clinton aides go out of their way to downplay any talk of coattails, mandates or landslides.

Asked by reporters in Pueblo if he thought he had coattails, he quickly demurred. “I have no idea. I think it’s too soon,” he said. “If I have coattails with people who agree with me, I think that’s good.” But “right now, I’m just trying to win. I haven’t won this election yet by a long shot.”

Despite all that, however, the Democrats believe that their candidate is in good position to win all three of the states on the West Coast and could win at least three of the Rocky Mountain states--New Mexico, Colorado and Montana--and perhaps Nevada as well. That would mark a dramatic shift from past post-World War II voting, in which most Western states have gone Republican in every election except the 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson landslide.

And Democratic strategists believe that Clinton can boost the fortunes of local Democratic congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial candidates. Clinton’s visit to Orange County today, for example, might help Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) in her increasingly tight Senate race with Republican Bruce Herschensohn.

Clinton’s lead already has had one clear impact, Romer said. “He’s a discouragement to the Republicans.” In Colorado, for example, the state’s GOP Senate candidate, Terry Considine, has taken steps recently to separate himself from Bush, criticizing the Administration’s record.

The coattail effect can work in reverse, as well, with popular local officials helping to make voters more comfortable with Clinton and quelling doubts about his character. That sort of testimony has been of considerable help to Clinton in the South, particularly in Georgia, where Sen. Sam Nunn and Gov. Zell Miller have vouched for Clinton with the voters who supported them.

In Pueblo, Romer tried the same tactic. “The question of character has been raised in all this,” he told the crowd, then noted that he and his fellow governors have known Clinton for years and worked with him. “We’re the best witnesses” to Clinton’s trustworthiness, he said. “We’ve seen him up close.”

In Cheyenne, Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson tried to turn one of the Republicans’ favorite slogans to Clinton’s favor in the sparsely populated states of the mountain region. Bush, he noted, likes to criticize Clinton as coming from a small state. “We folks who are from small states are going to band together,” he said. “Small is great.”