CAMPAIGN ’96 : Clinton’s Biggest Drawback in Midwest Is First Lady, Poll Finds

President Clinton’s biggest liability in the Midwest in the November general election may not be the economy or his foreign policy but his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to poll results released here Thursday--two days before a scheduled visit by the first lady.

Negative publicity surrounding Mrs. Clinton has run high of late with renewed allegations of impropriety over her role in the White House travel office firings and the Whitewater land deal. Last week, when she appeared before a grand jury investigating the Whitewater affair, she became the first wife of a president ever to testify under subpoena.

Many national polls have found Mrs. Clinton’s standing with the public dropping, but they so far have not shown an impact on her husband. But the new poll, which surveyed 455 adults in seven states of the northern Midwest, showed a clear impact.

“If people dislike Hillary, they dislike Bill,” said political science professor Arthur Miller, who directed the telephone survey of 455 respondents from Jan. 15 to 27. “We didn’t find any neutral ground. Either you love her or you hate her.” As Mrs. Clinton’s popularity dropped, particularly among independent voters, the president’s rating dropped as well, Miller said.

Perceptions of the first couple were more closely tied together than the link between Clinton’s overall popularity and voters’ assessments of his performance in office. The connection between how the public views the president and the view of his wife is also stronger than that between former President Bush and his wife, Barbara, and between Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Within the last month, the first lady’s negative ratings have jumped not only among Midwestern Republicans (from 65% to 78%), which was expected, but also among independents, from 37% to 55%, the poll found. At the same time, Clinton’s favorable rating dropped in those groups--from 49% favorable among independents to 40% and from 24% to 17% among Republicans.

Conversely, among Midwestern Democrats, roughly three out of four still view Mrs. Clinton positively, and an even higher proportion give high marks to the president.

The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.