Clinton’s Slated Trip to L.A. May Boost Woo’s Bid : Campaign: President plans to tout his legislative agenda. Aides advise him to back mayoral hopeful. Others say that a Woo loss would be a Clinton loss.

President Clinton plans to travel to Los Angeles Tuesday to build support for his economic package, White House officials said Thursday, heightening speculation that Clinton will endorse Michael Woo’s candidacy for mayor.

White House officials were unusually guarded in their comments about Clinton’s trip, saying that final decisions had not yet been made about what, exactly, Clinton would say or whether he and Woo would appear together. But officials have said for several weeks they would not schedule a presidential trip to Los Angeles until Clinton had decided how to handle the politically sensitive question of whether to involve himself in the mayoral race.

An official of the Democratic National Committee also cautioned that final decisions have not been made but said that aides to the White House and the Woo campaign were “in the planning stages of putting something together for the President and Michael Woo” while Clinton is visiting the city.

Woo and his aides have pressed hard for Clinton’s endorsement, hoping that support from the President would help generate a sense of momentum that would, in turn, help increase voter turnout and, perhaps, aid in fund raising as well. But several prominent Clinton supporters are backing Woo’s opponent, Richard Riordan, and Riordan backers have put pressure on the White House to stay out of the nominally nonpartisan election.

Within the White House, Clinton’s political aides have argued in favor of endorsing Woo, pointing out that the Democratic City Council member had endorsed Clinton at an early stage in his presidential effort. Moreover, they argue, having a Democratic mayor in the state’s largest city is important to Clinton’s hopes of building a solid California political base.

On the other side of the argument are aides who caution that Clinton could end up looking weak if he endorses Woo and Woo loses. A Los Angeles Times poll earlier this week showed the race in flux, with Riordan leading among the most-likely voters and Woo leading among all registered voters--an indication that turnout is likely to determine the winner.

Clinton plans to travel to Los Angeles as part of a two-day Western swing to build support for his economic program. On Monday, he is scheduled to visit New Mexico to speak at the Los Alamos National Laboratory about the Administration’s high-technology policies and his plans for conversion of defense-related industries to civilian work. Later that day he is scheduled to hold a televised town meeting in San Diego. According to White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, he will take questions from 40 to 50 people at San Diego’s KGTV from 8 to 9 p.m.

On Tuesday, Clinton plans to speak in Los Angeles at an event designed to highlight his proposals for enterprise zones and community-based development banks to revive inner-city neighborhoods. White House officials said a site for that event had not yet been set.

Times staff writer Alan Miller contributed to this story.