Clinton Warns GOP Victories Could Peril Social Security : Politics: President tries to give elderly a Halloween fright at Philadelphia rally. Attack follows claims that White House wants to trim benefits.

As the midterm election campaign moved into its final week, President Clinton tried to send a Halloween shiver through one of the nation’s most powerful voter blocs--the elderly--by warning Monday that Republican victories could threaten Social Security benefits.

Speaking for Democratic congressional candidates in Philadelphia, Clinton said that recent statements from Republican senatorial candidates Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and Oliver L. North in Virginia reflected GOP designs on Social Security that have been apparent for a decade.

“Say no to this radical attack on Social Security,” Clinton declared at a rally at Philadelphia City Hall as he joined Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford and gubernatorial candidate Mark Singel for a day of campaigning.

Clinton’s warning was part of an intensifying Democratic effort to exploit Republican campaign statements and turn Social Security, a potent Democratic issue in countless past campaigns, into an effective weapon in this year’s exceptionally tight races.

As the President spoke, the Democratic National Committee was about to begin running two new television ads in 10 to 15 areas that make the same charge and close with the phrase: “The Republicans: They’re at it again.” The advertisements will begin airing today.

The Democrats came under attack over politically sacred federal entitlements last month with disclosure of a memo from Office of Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin that discussed several ways to hold down entitlement benefits to cut the federal deficit.

Administration officials then denied that they had any intention of cutting Social Security. The issue began to look more promising for the Democrats on Oct. 16, when Santorum, Wofford’s opponent, said in impromptu remarks that he would like to see the Social Security benefits age raised to 70. Benefits can now be received as soon as age 62.

North, who is running against Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb, said that he would like to make the Social Security system voluntary.

The Democrats have tried to further sharpen the issue by asserting that the Republican “contract with America,” a campaign manifesto signed in September by about 300 House candidates, would require huge cuts to achieve its goals of balancing the budget, cutting taxes and increasing military spending.

Pointing to a congressional committee’s calculations, the Democrats say that carrying out all those goals at once would require cuts of 22% in all other programs, including Social Security and Medicare. Clinton pounced on that theme as he spoke to several hundred Philadelphians in the courtyard of the ornate City Hall.

He said that the Republican promises would require cuts of $2,000 per person in Social Security and another $1,800 per person in Medicare benefits.

That money comes “out of the most vulnerable people in this country,” Clinton said, “people who have worked hard all their lives, people who have paid their taxes--people who have paid their dues.”

Clinton asserted that President Ronald Reagan had gone after Social Security in 1981 with his proposals to fix the system and that Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the minority whip, had proposed to change it as well.

In response, Gingrich’s office said that he has not considered such changes since 1986. And the Republican National Committee countered that in 1986 Clinton had voiced support for across-the-board entitlement cuts.

Clinton aides repeated Clinton’s pledges that he is opposed to Social Security cuts and will offer no changes in the system in his budget. Yet they stopped short of a categorical pledge that Clinton would never change its current terms, saying, as one aide put it, that he “has rejected cuts for the foreseeable future.”

Wofford, still facing a tough challenge from Santorum, joined Monday in Clinton’s attacks, calling Social Security “a sacred trust.”

“I’m not going to let Rick Santorum or anybody raid the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for more tax breaks for the rich and more budget-busting military programs that we don’t need,” Wofford said.

To drive home the point, David Wilhelm, the Democratic National Committee chairman, boarded a White House press flight Monday to show reporters Democratic television ads hitting Santorum for his comments on Social Security. The ads show Santorum at a campaign appearance saying that he would like to see the eligibility age raised to 70 and adding that it is “ridiculous” that one-quarter of the population receives the benefits.

Apparently to counter any objections that they are trying to scare the elderly, the Democrats said that they had mounted the attack only because of Republican claims that they would slash the retirement program.

The Social Security issue may have particular resonance in Pennsylvania, which has the nation’s second-largest elderly population. If the topic does give Wofford a boost, it will come not a moment too soon.

Wofford, 68, a former civil rights worker and aide to President John F. Kennedy, is in a tight race with Santorum, a two-term congressman from the Pittsburgh area who is known for his sharp anti-government rhetoric.

Most public opinion polls have shown the two candidates very close, although a poll released last weekend by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and WTAE-TV showed Santorum ahead by a margin of 46% to 35%.

Wilhelm denounced the poll Monday as “strange” and “incorrect.”

Clinton’s Philadelphia stop was followed by an appearance at a Democratic campaign rally at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. With his approval rating edging up to nearly 50% in polls, Clinton seemed no longer to have trouble attracting congressional candidates to stand by his side: Five joined him in Philadelphia and three in Pittsburgh.

Both events were open only to those who obtained tickets from the Democratic campaign organizations, a system that reduced the risk that the appearance would draw protesters who could disrupt television coverage.

The joint appearance by Clinton and Wofford--their first of the campaign--was also notable because the two scarcely mentioned health care, the subject that propelled Wofford to his stunning 1991 victory and was embraced the following year by Clinton.

Clearly, some in Clinton’s audience in Pittsburgh took his warnings about Social Security seriously. Georgia Konopka, a Pittsburgh housewife, and her husband, Don, said that they regard the Republican threat to their Social Security and Medicare benefits as the biggest issue in the election.

“We’re in our 50s and this is scary stuff,” said Mrs. Konopka, who added that in her first look at Clinton, she found the President “adorable.”