Despite Advice of Aides, Clinton Campaigns for Fowler in Georgia : Democrats: The President-elect is seen risking political clout in stumping for the senator, who lost huge lead in a brutally negative race.

President-elect Bill Clinton campaigned Monday on behalf of Georgia Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr., who faces a runoff election that either will give the Democrats a 58-42 Senate majority or raise potentially embarrassing questions about Clinton’s political pull.

In stops in Macon and Albany, Ga., Clinton told voters that they need to show up at the polls once again today so Fowler can cast votes in the Senate that may be crucial to the incoming President’s legislative agenda.

“You know what they’re saying about this election?” Clinton asked a crowd of several thousand gathered in front of Macon’s imposing Greek Revival city hall. “If you beat Wyche Fowler it will be easy to block everything President-elect Clinton wants to do.”

Clinton’s swing was made against the advice of several aides, who urged him not to risk an appearance with a one-term senator who has lost a strong lead in a brutally negative race. Republican Paul Coverdell, an insurance executive and former Peace Corps director, has hit Fowler hard for allegedly writing overdrafts on his House bank account as a congressman and his difficulties in a messy child-support proceeding.

The Clinton aides who opposed the trip believed that by appearing with Fowler, Clinton could squander political capital at a moment when he needs to preserve all he has for the legislative fights ahead. But one aide, noting that Fowler’s problems are widely acknowledged and that Clinton’s approval ratings have been rising in some polls, rejected the idea that a Fowler loss would do much harm to Clinton.

Transition Team Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, while conceding that there was some risk in the campaign swing, insisted that risks are unavoidable if Clinton is to accomplish what he wants.

“He’s not going to sit in his office and try to work for change,” she said.

In the general election, Fowler won 49% of the vote, Coverdell 48%, and a Libertarian candidate 3%. Georgia law calls for a runoff when no candidate wins a majority of the vote.

Macon and Albany were chosen for stops because they are home to many of the black voters who helped Clinton and Fowler in the Nov. 3 election. At one point in his Macon appearance, Clinton lifted up a black girl, 4th-grader Carmen Fountain, who wrote Clinton to ask the President-elect to visit her school.

While Fowler conceded that his own speech in Macon was weak, Clinton showed his characteristic campaign zeal.

He plunged into the Macon crowd for a half hour of hand-shaking, then, picking up a saxophone, sat in with the Central High School Sugar Bear Band for a rendition of Paul Chanel’s 1960s hit, “Hey, Baby.”

A singing group that accompanied the band changed one line of the song to, “Hey, Bill, I want to know, won’t you be my Prez?”

Unlike Georgia Democrats Sen. Sam Nunn and Gov. Zell Miller, Fowler kept his distance from Clinton during the general election campaign. He appeared with Clinton only once, in Decatur, Ga., though Clinton suggested joint appearances several times.

Nonetheless, in Macon, Fowler declared that after the election he would be “by (Clinton’s) side whenever he needs me.”

Clinton won Georgia by a narrow margin of 43.5% to President Bush’s 42.9%.

Fowler insisted that Monday’s visit by the President-elect would be very important to his reelection effort because of the good will accorded every new President.

Although Clinton only won Georgia by a hair’s breadth, Fowler said that since the election, there has been “a whole massive shift in the landscape. Now we have a new President.”

Barbara Bush and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) already have campaigned in Georgia for Coverdell, a longtime state legislator.

Clinton aides, meanwhile, have announced that during his upcoming Thanksgiving trip to California, the President-elect will talk with former President Ronald Reagan. The visit by Clinton, who met Sunday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is scheduled to take place at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Reagan’s Century City office.

Myers said that there was no specific agenda for the meeting, but that Clinton hoped to gain the benefit of Reagan’s experience.

Sources said Clinton will announce today that his economic summit will take place in Arkansas on Dec. 14 and 15.