Democrats Target the Youth Vote as Election Day Nears : Strategy: Polls show those in 18-29 age group are leaning toward ticket. Gore appears on MTV, joins Clinton in urging young people to register.

NEW YORK — In these closing days of the campaign, Bill Clinton and Al Gore are making a concerted effort to cement their support among young voters, who polls show are swinging toward the Democratic ticket after strongly backing Ronald Reagan and George Bush in the last three presidential elections.

On Wednesday, vice presidential nominee Gore appeared on a special 60-minute edition of MTV’s “Choose or Lose” program and Clinton called in from his airplane while flying to Colorado. Both candidates urged young people to register and vote.

While Clinton campaigns in some traditional GOP strongholds in the West this week, Gore will be meeting with high school and college students in Georgia and Florida, continuing a strong push that began last summer after polls revealed a decided preference among youths for the baby boomer ticket.

“We’ve got to get young people to believe again that the political system can make a difference in their lives,” Clinton said Wednesday. “Our whole campaign has been rooted in making sure that we don’t raise the first generation of Americans to do worse than their parents.”

Young voters’ apparent preference for the Democrats is “one of the most unexpected demographic phenomenons” of this volatile election year, said Bruce Reed, Clinton’s issues director.

“Young people are genuinely concerned about their future,” added campaign director Bruce Lindsey, who said the biggest challenge in the next 13 days is to get out the youth vote, which has had a notoriously poor turnout on Election Day.

“One of my goals in this election is to dramatically increase the percentage of people under 25 who are voting,” Clinton said during a recent television interview. “I want people to believe that politics and government can be something good and noble and effective again.”

Analysts are not surprised by the polls that show young people, usually defined as those between 18 and 29, leaning toward Clinton--despite the fact that in 1988 that age group strongly supported George Bush.

Through the 1980s, “they saw two images of leadership while they were growing up--Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter--and they felt Reagan was a stronger leader,” said Curtis Gans, director of the nonprofit Committee for the Study of the American Electorate. “And they saw the economy and their future in better shape under Reagan and Bush--despite the fact that they disagreed with the Republicans on most social issues, like abortion, gun control and education.”

But with the prolonged recession, according to Gans and others, young voters now care more about pocketbook issues, especially jobs.

“Obviously it also helps to have the youngest ticket in American history,” Reed added.

A spokeswoman for the Bush-Quayle campaign conceded that youths seem to be leaning heavily Democratic, but pointed to the campaign’s volatility.

“Certainly there’s been a shift, and we’ve noticed that,” said Darcy Campbell, the Bush-Quayle spokeswoman. “But that doesn’t mean the numbers aren’t going to shift back to us.”

In the 1988 election, those in the 18-29 age group voted for Bush over Michael S. Dukakis by a margin of 55% to 44%, according to a Los Angeles Times exit poll--a slightly bigger margin than the overall vote, 53% to 46%.

Virtually every recent poll has shown young people’s preference for the Democratic ticket.

An MTV/Rock the Vote poll last month, taken by Democratic pollster Peter Hart, gave Clinton/Gore 54%, Bush/Quayle 30% and undecided 9%. The poll was taken before Ross Perot entered the race on Oct. 1.

And an October Los Angeles Times Poll of 1,535 registered voters found that those in the 18-29 age group preferred the Democrats by a 53%-31% margin, larger than the 45%-31% margin that they registered in mid-summer, according to poll director John Brennan.

With such favorable margins of preference, the Clinton/Gore campaign is particularly mindful that young voters have stayed away from the ballot box in disproportionate numbers.

In 1988, the Census Bureau estimates, only 36.2% of those between ages 18 and 24 voted--compared with 54% of those between 25 and 44, and 67.5% of those between 45 and 64.

Clinton and Gore have been courting the youth vote in a big way. Clinton appeared on MTV last June and was viewed by 38% of all its viewers. MTV appears in about 57 million U.S. households.

On the campaign trail, Gore often quotes lyrics from rock songs to drive home a point and exchanges high-fives with young people.

Clinton and Gore have made numerous appearances on campuses and on youth-oriented shows, such as earlier this month on “Rock the Vote,” a special 90-minute edition of “Rockline,” a talk show for young people carried by 150 FM stations around the country.

“Young people are more interested in this election than they have been in many past presidential elections,” Gore said. “They realize the future will depend upon our ability as a nation to reach out for change.”

Today on the Trail . . .

Gov. Bill Clinton campaigns in Seattle and Eugene, Ore., and addresses a rally at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Orange County.

President Bush campaigns in Vineland, East Windsor, Bergen County and Secaucus, N.J.

Ross Perot has no public events scheduled.

*

TELEVISION

Al Gore is a guest on NBC’s “Today” show at 7 a.m. PDT.

Bush is a guest on CBS’s “This Morning” program at 8 a.m. PDT.

Perot airs a 30-minute commercial on ABC at 8:30 p.m. PDT.

C-SPAN may air repeats of the presidential debates. For updated program schedules, call C-SPAN at 202-628-2205.