Clintons Stump for National, State Democrats

Two days before an election President Clinton yesterday called one of the most important in a century, he and Senator Clinton rallied Democrats across New York, using the Bush administration as a political football.

"How are we going to deal with all of these issues at home and abroad? The way we're going to start is to get back to Democratic leadership in Albany and Washington," Mrs. Clinton told a standing-room rally with New York Democratic candidates at a Yonkers hotel. "Democrats have done it before, we can do it again."

At two major campaign appearances together as a couple, the Clintons shored up support by surrounding themselves with political allies.

They received a rousing welcome at one of their first stops — a Sunday morning service at the Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens, where the pastor, Floyd Flake, a former congressman, introduced the Clintons as "our president and our senator" and then led the congregation in a chant: "Get up, go out, and vote!"

Hours later, the couple campaigned with Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Cuomo, and a handful candidates for Westchester, state, and national office.

"You put the Republican failure together with the Democratic promise, and that is political dynamite," Mr. Cuomo, who served as a Clinton-era Cabinet secretary for housing and urban development, said. "That is TNT, and it's going to be an explosion this Tuesday."

Conspicuously absent from the Yonkers rally of the Democratic slate, which many polls indicate will sweep Tuesday's election, was Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who has lost support precipitously since accusations were made public that he had improperly used state employees to chauffeur his ailing wife around the state. On Saturday, a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Pataki said there is a strong legal basis to remove Mr. Hevesi.

Nobody on the Democratic slate mentioned Mr. Hevesi at the Yonkers rally, and Mrs. Clinton seemed to caught off-guard when asked by a reporter to comment on Mr. Hevesi's situation.

"There's a process that's moving on and that has been discussed endlessly," Mrs. Clinton said as she finished an impromptu roadside news conference before driving to another campaign event in Lagrangeville. "The responsibility's going to rest with the state government."