ANBURY, Conn. - Calling himself the ''cheerleader in chief,'' President Clinton attended half a dozen events yesterday, mostly in service of his wife Hillary's Senate campaign.
''This is an interesting time in my life. My family has a new candidate and my party has a new leader. I've become the cheerleader in chief, and I love it,'' Clinton said while in Connecticut to raise money for Representative James H. Maloney, Democrat of Connecticut.
Today, Clinton will go beyond cheerleader to voter, casting his first vote as a New Yorker for his wife. Hillary Rodham Clinton faces Dr. Mark McMahon in the Democratic primary for US Senate, and the Clintons plan to vote together at a school near their suburban Westchester County home.
Until now Clinton had remained an Arkansas voter.
Clinton had six events to attend yesterday - four political or fund-raising speeches bracketed by two events involving New York's Jewish community. Although nominally nonpolitical presidential appearances, even those two speeches seemed to have a political purpose.
The day's first stop was a Jewish community center in Westchester County. Clinton was ending his day in New York City, where Mrs. Clinton was collecting an award for work among Holocaust survivors.
Mrs. Clinton is lagging in her pursuit of New York's influential Jewish vote, a traditionally Democratic constituency.
Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1 among New York State's Jews, yet polls show Mrs. Clinton is still having trouble reaching the 60 percent level of support among Jewish voters - a level that analysts say is the minimum she needs to win.
Among all voters, the race between Mrs. Clinton and Republican congressman Rick Lazio is roughly even. Although hardly monolithic, the Jewish vote is considered capable of swinging a Senate election even though only 12 percent of the state's electorate is Jewish.
President Clinton's calendar was more full yesterday than those of many candidates on the ballot in November.
He hopscotched from suburban New York to Connecticut and back to New York City to raise money for Mrs. Clinton and two other Democrats.
