ASHINGTON - New York Senate candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and GOP Representative Rick Lazio have agreed to ban the kind of costly issue advertising on television and radio that is financed by unlimited campaign contributions to political parties.
The candidates' unprecedented decision to willingly eschew millions of dollars in these donations, known as ''soft money,'' marked a victory for campaign finance reform advocates. But it could pose a problem for Clinton, who has raised large sums for the national party at the same time she has lagged behind Lazio in collecting smaller, more restricted donations to her own campaign.
The agreement reached this weekend could easily fall apart, because party leaders and outside interest groups must restrain their spending in order to make it work. Under the pact, Democrats and Republicans could continue to devote soft-money contributions to get-out-the-vote efforts and direct-mail appeals, but they would halt all TV and radio commercials run on behalf of either Clinton or Lazio. They would also ask their political allies to stop running ads.
Lazio, who has pushed aggressively for the ban since he debated Clinton two weeks ago, said yesterday on ABC's ''This Week'' that the accord is ''a tremendous victory for America if it holds. It will demonstrate that New York doesn't need a law to do the right thing.''
Clinton confirmed that there is an agreement, which will take effect Wednesday when ads bought in advance by the state Democratic Party on her behalf run out.
''I am urging all organizations and entities supporting me, both here and in Washington, to respect my wishes and refrain from running TV and radio ads supporting me,'' she said Saturday in Manhattan. ''I expect Mr. Lazio to do the same with the Republican and Conservative parties in New York and in Washington and with all his ad hoc supporters.''
Clinton, who has raised millions of dollars for the Democrats' New York Senate 2000 committee, has had less success in recent weeks collecting federally restricted donations, which in the general election are limited to $1,000 per person. Between July 1 and Aug. 23, for example, Lazio outraised Clinton by more than three to one.
Republicans and Democrats agreed Clinton had the most to lose financially from the agreement.
''She's gotten herself hamstrung by being so reliant on soft money,'' said Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, Republican of New York, who serves as Lazio's campaign chairman. ''She's really been dragged into this, saying she's an opponent of soft money and being a master at spending it.''
But Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, who emphasized that Clinton had first called for a soft-money ban in December, when she was running against New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said he was agreeing to the pledge despite the fact that it's to Lazio's ''political advantage.'' Democrats have already spent roughly $4.5 million on issue ads promoting Clinton's candidacy, while Lazio's allies have spent only a fraction of that amount.
''When Hillary makes a commitment she stands by it, and New Yorkers know that,'' Wolfson said. He added that he hoped the conservative groups who had pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars attacking Clinton would now hold their fire.
''If this agreement stops them from doing that, it's a good thing for New York,'' he said.
Despite the accord, it appears unlikely that the candidates' allies will halt their activities. Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, whose New York affiliate has already run a round of ads attacking Lazio's record on abortion, said her group ''cannot participate in a campaign of silence.''
If supporters of one campaign violate the ban, the other side can respond ''proportionately'' by spending the same amount of money.
New York pollster John Zogby predicted the ban would have ''zero'' effect on spending in the race, adding, ''Does anyone really believe all those groups are really going to stop?''
