WASHINGTON -- Lola Simmons is a gay, black Democrat from Brooklyn -- just the women New York party officials needed to fill their national convention delegation in 1996.

Simmons, who expects to be a delegate again next year, was drawn into politics by the Democrats' goals of bringing to the convention floor more blacks, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians -- and in some states homosexuals as well.

"I was told there wasn't enough minorities and/or women from Brooklyn who were interested in being a delegate," she said. A former coworker from a gay political action group encouraged Simmons to get more personally involved, telling her, "You might be a good choice."

"I thought, 'This would be a great opportunity for me to get to know the Democratic party a lot more intimately,"' Simmons recalled.

A Clinton delegate to the 1996 convention, the former political neophyte is now co-president of a Brooklyn club for gay Democrats. She also hopes to be a delegate in 2000, this time for Bill Bradley.

State party officials around the country are recruiting people such as Simmons to comply with affirmative action goals. Under Democratic National Party rules, each state must analyze its electorate and come up with numeric goals that will help delegations reflect local populations.

States aren't penalized for failing to meet their goals, although most do. The only national requirement by the DNC is based on gender: delegations must be split evenly between men and women.

"The purpose here is to encourage more participation in the process and to make sure that people who vote for Democrats have a voice at the table," said DNC spokeswoman Jenny Backus. "That's why we work with our state parties to set up a system of some goals -- they aren't quotas, they're goals -- to make sure that our conventions look like America."

Simmons, 41, said her experience at the 1996 national convention energized her and increased her interest in Democratic policies as she got a behind-the-scenes view. "Suddenly, there were new layers of politics going on that I was never really aware of," she said.

The Republican National Party doesn't mandate diversity and doesn't keep statistics on race and gender among delegates. The difference in rules illustrates how differently each party approaches its outreach to underrepresented groups, said Bill McCarthy, a RNC spokesman.

"Democrats are a top-down party that dictates from Washington. Republicans take our strength from the grassroots," McCarthy said. "As a party, we do encourage, as broadly as possible, participation by men and women, young and old, and all minority groups."

The Republican party also has a minority outreach council that specifically recruits black and Hispanic voters, McCarthy said.

"We're confident of the diversity of our party that we don't have to dictate the makeup of our delegates," he said.

The DNC has required equal gender division since 1980, and the party's affirmative action rules took effect in 1984. Since then, many states have set goals for groups in addition to ethnic minorities. California, New York and Rhode Island, for example, are among the states that include gays and lesbians in the mix. In Michigan, they even set aside slots for Arab Americans.

In Ohio, for the first time, party officials are adding five gay or lesbian delegates to its affirmative action goals for 2000, which also include six slots for "young" Democrats under 35.

"We're not bound to do it. If we don't end up with 5 or 6 -- or whatever -- at the national convention, nobody's going to throw our delegation out," said David Leland, Ohio's state party chairman. "But it's important to send a message throughout the state that ... we want to increase participation by historically under represented groups."

Erica Brooks, the delegate selection coordinator for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said affirmative action programs help the party educate people about the political process.

The goal is "to try to bring new blood and new energy into the party, and let them know, hey, you can be part of national history," she said. "I can't tell you how many people I talk to on a daily basis who aren't aware of how they could become delegates. They just know that every four years they turn on the TV and there they are. They have no idea that, 'Hey, I could be one of those people."'

Leland, the Democratic chairman in Ohio, compared the gradual national impact of party affirmative action rules to the effects of Title IX, a federal law that requires colleges to fund athletic programs for women on par with those for men.

"You encourage people to be in the process and then they go from being delegates to being candidates to being office holders," Leland said, calling it a subtle movement.

"More women are participating in collegiate sports because of Title IX, and now you see American women doing better in the Olympics. The same thing works in politics."