WASHINGTON -- Six weeks ago, Vice President Al Gore flexed his policy-making muscle, summoning four Cabinet secretaries to the White House to order up the funding for a second round of federal grants for inner city "empowerment zones."

He never mentioned his still-undeclared presidential bid during that meeting, according to the vice president's chief of staff. But political fruits of his labors were on national display yesterday, when Gore jetted to vote-rich South Florida to celebrate one of the newest empowerment zones, inner-city Miami.

Not only could he appeal to his party's core African-American and Hispanic constituencies, but he could strike a serious, policy-making pose between a fund-raising luncheon in Palm Beach and a $1,000-a-plate dinner in swanky Bal Harbour, Fla., last night. Total take: an estimated $590,000.

"This administration's efforts to ensure the prosperity that's been created reaches deep into society is an important part of our economic agenda," explained Ronald A. Klain, the vice president's chief of staff, in defending the $97 million, nine-year award to Miami. "It's something we can all be proud of."

With the president's blessing, Gore is raising his public profile and marshaling the power of his office in a bid to quickly secure the Democratic presidential nomination and raise the funds to face a challenge from the winner of the GOP nomination.

Gore suddenly seems to have become the public face of the Clinton administration. While the president spent this week conferring with Central American leaders and dedicating his boyhood home in Hope, Ark., Gore unveiled a new policy initiative every day, while holding major fund-raisers in Washington and Florida.

On Monday, it was a new initiative to decrease traffic congestion. On Tuesday, it was a new effort to curb waste runoff from livestock producers. On Wednesday, the vice president proposed a "passengers' bill of rights" for frustrated air travelers. On Thursday, it was new consumer protection for over-the-counter pharmaceutical users.

On Monday, the vice president will harness Air Force II to jet off to the key states of New Hampshire and Iowa on the same day.

"For [Gore] to step out and take a larger role is certainly in sync with what the president wants. It makes all the sense in the world to me," said Terrence McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton fund-raiser and an important Gore ally. "Now it's the vice president's turn. We're moving toward an election, and he needs to step forward."

Janet Mullins, a top aide in George Bush's 1988 campaign, cautioned that Gore's efforts follow a time-honored tradition of campaigning for the White House's top slot from the vice presidency.

But others, friends and foes alike, say the magnitude of Gore's efforts is remarkable.

At this time in 1987, Bush had competition for the nomination from numerous Republican challengers and did not appear to have the hearty backing of an ostensibly neutral Ronald Reagan.

"This is an unprecedented event, where the president laid the hands on his appointed successor," said Mary Matalin, an official of the 1988 Bush campaign. "We had to do it the old-fashioned way, with straw polls, running from state to state, retail politicking, not the distribution of federal largess."

Clinton's fiscal 2000 budget request has Gore's fingerprints all over it, and Gore aides are not bashful in claiming credit for nearly two dozen programs they claim as the vice president's own.

Even his wife, Tipper, is pitching in. Last month, she flew to Iowa, site of one of the first presidential nomination contests, to unveil $7 million in loans for rural child care facilities. Republican aides in Congress said the event was unusual, since the Department of Agriculture provided $24 million last year to develop 77 child care centers, without such fanfare.

"Clearly, Clinton is allowing Gore to step in and take over the message machine," a Democratic Senate aide close to the presidential campaign said. "He's got the West Wing working for him the way no vice president has ever had."

Since his re-election in 1996, Clinton has increasingly allowed Gore to weave a seamless web between the current White House and what the vice president hopes will be the future White House. Last week, Loretta M. Ucelli, the spokeswoman for Gore confidante Carol Browner at the Environmental Protection Agency, was named White House communications director.

Clinton's domestic policy adviser, Bruce Reed, came from Gore's Senate staff. Gore's former chief of staff, Thurgood Marshall Jr., is the president's Cabinet secretary.

Karen Skelton, the deputy White House political director, had been Gore's political director. And Frederick DuVal, who ran Gore's 1996 re-election effort, is the White House's deputy director of intergovernmental affairs.

The web also goes the other way. Craig Smith, Clinton's political affairs director, has stepped down to take over as Gore's campaign manager.

Gore aides see nothing unusual in any of this.

"There's a natural tendency in the White House for the president's and vice president's staffs to be in an 'us vs. them' situation," Klain said. "In this White House, because the staffs are not only close but intermingled, it defuses any 'us vs. them' thing because we're all 'us.' "

Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the vice president has been integrally involved in the inner workings of the White House from the first days of the Clinton administration. Last week's prominence had more to do with the president being out of the country than any conscious shift in White House procedures.

Gore has kept a running list of policy initiatives and budget priorities that he initiated over the past six years, including after-school programs, education technology initiatives, efforts to combat global warming, the securing of nuclear materials in former Soviet states, and the expansion of incentives for businesses investing in the inner city.

But, Klain said, Gore does seem to be getting more attention.

"Obviously, there's more interest in him as people start to think of him as a possible president," Klain said. "He's getting more attention, and that's a nice little side benefit for us."

Pub Date: 3/13/99