POLITICS : As Elections Draw Near, Clinton Is Shaping Up as the GOP’s Best Friend : Republicans evoke the President at every chance; Democrats counter by stressing local accomplishments.

When New York Rep. Louise M. Slaughter’s Republican challenger assails her as a tax-and-spend liberal, she changes the subject.

Instead of discussing national issues, the hard-pressed Rochester, N.Y., Democrat points to the rewards she has helped her town win from Washington: an airport expansion, a new high-tech research facility and harbor improvements to protect against the ravages of Lake Ontario.

The contest between Slaughter and GOP challenger Renee Davison illustrates the head-on collision between the overall political strategies being pursued by the two major parties in the November election, in which nearly 500 House and Senate seats are at stake.

Mindful of the widespread voter discontent over national issues, Republicans are trying to make this campaign a referendum on the party in power. Democrats, putting their faith in the old axiom that all politics is local, are striving to define each race in terms of what it means for each individual political battleground.

“Nationally there’s an anti-incumbent mood, and a mood against President Clinton,” says Slaughter’s media consultant, Joe Trippi. “If you get enmeshed in that, you lose. But if you can get voters to focus on what you as a member of Congress have done for local people, you have a good chance of winning.”

The difference between the two approaches reflects the sharply contrasting outlooks for each party.

“I am very bullish,” says Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour. “We have not only had a strong wind at our backs for more than a year, but in the last few weeks that wind has actually picked up.”

On the Democratic side, his party’s condition reminds Philadelphia-based consultant Saul Shorr of the after-the-battle scene from “Gone With the Wind.”

“It’s like I’m in the middle of Atlanta with all those bodies, and all I hear is moaning,” says Shorr, who advises 22 candidates around the country. “When I get on conference calls with people I haven’t talked to for a while, I ask, ‘What do you see out there?’ They say, ‘Disaster.’ ”

To avoid debacle, many Democratic candidates are trying to distance themselves from Clinton and his sagging polls.

But Republicans have no intention of allowing that to happen. GOP candidates will find ways to “attach the local incumbent to President Clinton,” predicts pollster Bill McInturff, whose firm counsels about 60 GOP House and Senate candidates. “Republicans will say, ‘These Democrats are not independent. Every time their votes were needed they voted for the President.’ ”

Some Democratic strategists contend that the Republicans are exaggerating Clinton’s impact on the election.

“I don’t think this election is about the President per se, “ says pollster Mark Mellman, who counsels 18 candidates around the country. “Clinton is only part of the background for the campaign. In the foreground are the individual candidates, and the results will depend on how people evaluate them against each other.”

For Democratic incumbents, one key to reelection is to demonstrate how they use their power and status in Washington for the sake of their constituents. “It could be a hospital or a road,” says pollster Alan Secrest, who advises about 30 House candidates. “But often, it’s something more compelling.”

Facing a primary challenge last June, Rep. Mike Parker (D-Miss.) used a commercial that focused on his successful battle against the Social Security bureaucracy on behalf of an elderly constituent. Secrest expects the effort will help Parker in the general election, too.

“The point is to make plain the fact that your stewardship makes a difference in the day-to-day lives of your voters,” Secrest says.

Democratic challengers, as well as incumbents, also are relying heavily on local issues and concerns. In Iowa’s 2nd District, former Rep. Dave Nagle’s aides say he is trying to win back the seat he lost to Republican Jim Nussle in 1992 by contending that Nussle’s vote against a farm aid bill would have cost his constituents about $19 million in federal aid.

Although Nagle doesn’t often mention Clinton in his campaign, he does attack Nussle for voting against the federal crime bill that Clinton helped push through the House.

“I think you are going to run into problems if you pretend you don’t know the man (Clinton),” Nagle said. “I think the proper thing to say is: ‘I’m going to work with the President when I agree with him.’ But you’re better off talking about your solutions to problems than his solutions.”

Because of the nature of their office, it is more difficult for Democratic Senate candidates to separate themselves from the national party and national issues than House candidates--but most try.

In commercials for 15 Democratic Senate candidates provided by the Democratic Senate campaign committee, the federal government was generally depicted, even by incumbents, as a force that needed to be wrestled to the ground, and the stress on local roots and loyalties was pronounced.

“You’ll see me fighting for Utah,” pledges Pat Shea, Democratic challenger in Utah. “Working hard for Virginia,” is the way incumbent Democrat Charles S. Robb described himself to Old Dominion voters.

“Standing up for New Mexico,” is the way incumbent Jeff Bingaman depicts himself. In Montana, challenger Jack Mudd claimed as a prime credential the fact that he “is not a politician” and he “has never held office.”

In more than 50 Democratic commercials in those 15 races, Clinton’s name was mentioned only once. Although the ads frequently referred to welfare reform and crime legislation, there was no mention that both issues have been high on Clinton’s domestic agenda.

Republican Senate challengers show no such reluctance about using the President’s name. In New Mexico, an ad for Colin McMillan, the GOP candidate against Bingaman, depicts Clinton promising during the campaign not to raise taxes on the middle class, a pledge McMillan claims he has broken. The ad also charges that Clinton is counting on Bingaman to help pass his “liberal agenda.”

In Tennessee, Republican challenger Bill First is airing a commercial that shows an imaginary Mt. Rushmore featuring the visages of three-term incumbent Sen. Jim Sasser, Clinton, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and indicted Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Rostenkowski.

In Virginia, Republican Oliver L. North’s commercial claims that Robb votes with Clinton 95% of the time, and “voted to help Bill Clinton raise your taxes.”

Republicans claim that their efforts to nationalize the election are not all negative. Later this month, House Republican incumbents and candidates will unite behind their leadership to present a 10-part legislative package, including measures to cut taxes, balance the budget and reform the welfare system. Senate Republican incumbents and challengers plan a similar demonstration.

“We’re coming forward in a high-profile way and saying, ‘Look, this is exactly what we are for,’ ” says Barbour. “Our real strength is issues. We’ve got better ideas than Democrats.”

Whatever tactics the two parties use, both sides agree that the Democrats already face a handicap when it comes to voter enthusiasm and anticipated turnout. As a result of the national sense of frustration with politics in general, and with Clinton’s performance in particular, Democrats seem likely to face a harder job getting their supporters to the polls.

GOP pollster McInturff says that anti-Clinton citizens are more energized than Clinton backers. Of those who disapprove of the job Clinton is doing, 55% say they are interested in the election, according to McInturff’s surveys, while of those who approve of the President’s performance, only 40% are interested.

Acknowledging the problem, House Democratic Campaign Chairman Rep. Vic Fazio of Sacramento says Democrats need to work harder at making the electorate aware of their accomplishments, such as deficit reduction and the crime bill.

“We haven’t effectively told our story, and we need to do that.”