ASHINGTON - The Democratic National Committee plans to launch a massive television advertising campaign today, financed with millions of dollars in ''soft money'' donations, in an effort to rebuild Vice President Al Gore's image. But the move immediately led to Republican charges that Gore was violating a campaign pledge not to initiate the controversial form of advertising.
The action is expected to unleash an unprecedented torrent of advertising from both the Republican and Democratic parties aimed at influencing the presidential campaign. The ads are financed with unlimited, unregulated contributions known as soft money that often exceed $100,000, in contrast to the strictly regulated $1,000-per-person donations from individuals given to presidential campaigns.
''This is going to be an explosive use of soft money that will break all past records,'' said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, which advocates campaign-finance overhaul, estimating that this year's expenditure of soft money will double the 1996 campaign total.
Wertheimer said he agreed with Republican complaints that Gore appeared to be breaking a campaign promise, but he said the larger point is that both parties will now start spending tens of millions of dollars in soft money that was never intended to be used in a presidential campaign.
Today's move by the DNC could cause political problems for Gore because of a pledge he made March 15. In several television appearances, Gore said he would prevent the DNC from using soft money on advertisements ''unless and until the Republican Party does.''
Gore, appearing yesterday on ABC-TV's ''Good Morning America,'' said the Republican Party has ''gone first. They did months ago.''
Gore did not provide a specific example, but his aides have said for weeks that the Gore proposal was void because independent groups that back Bush have spent money on advertisements attacking Gore. For example, a group called Shape the Debate has paid for commercials that call Gore a hypocrite for backing campaign-finance overhaul after holding what it called an illegal fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple.
But Republican Party Chairman Jim Nicholson said the Republican National Committee has not spent any soft money on advertisements, and he said it would be illegal for the RNC to try to stop independent groups such as Shape the Debate from airing its ads.
''We have not spent one thin dime on soft money ads,'' Nicholson said. ''This is pathetic. He has been vice president for 71/2 years, and now he is trying to reintroduce himself, this time spending money in violation of a pledge he took.''
Nicholson said the RNC is looking at ''all of our options'' and hasn't decided whether to spend its $30 million soft money war chest on advertisements.
George W. Bush, the all-but-certain Republican nominee, said at a Georgia campaign appearance: ''It sounds like to me they're laying out a smoke screen to provide cover for Al Gore to break his promise.''
Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway acknowledged, ''I'm not aware of any soft money ads by the RNC.''
But Hattaway said that when Gore made his proposal to Bush in March via e-mail, the vice president specifically included ads by Republican-oriented groups as well as the RNC. When Gore outlined his proposal in television interviews, however, he referred to soft money spent by the political parties. When Gore was asked on CNN whether he would instruct the DNC ''to take the lead in this regardless of what the Republicans do,'' Gore said, ''Oh, sure.''
Given the seeming disparity between Gore's televised comments and his e-mail, the Gore campaign yesterday said the vice president's e-mail proposal had been violated by Republican groups.
''They (the RNC) have these front groups spending millions of dollars on attack ads,'' Hattaway said.
Bush did not accept or reject Gore's March proposal. But Bush was criticized during the primaries when some Texas backers launched a $2 million ad campaign that attacked Senator John McCain's environmental record. McCain filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about the ads.
''Bush does not come to this with clean hands,'' Wertheimer said. Bush said at the time that he had nothing to do with the ads and was not responsible for them.
A DNC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ads will be unveiled in a Washington news conference today and begin airing tomorrow. The ads were still being finalized last night but were described as an effort to strengthen Gore's image and boost his stance on the issues.
Under federal law, the political parties are not allowed to spend soft money on ads that advocate the election or defeat of a candidate, but the parties are allowed to run party-building or issue-oriented ads. In 1996, both parties used the vagueness of the law to run ads that clearly promoted their candidates or attacked the opponent. The parties said the ads were legal because the commercials did not include any language that urged people to vote for a certain candidate, even though the message was obvious.
In 1996, the DNC used millions in soft money so effectively in early television ads that many analysts said it helped seal President Clinton's reelection long before the summer conventions.
While both parties used the soft money ads in 1996, the practice especially haunted Democrats because some of the funds were allegedly raised illegally. A congressional investigation found that some of the money came from foreign sources, and Republicans have long urged that a special prosecutor should have been appointed to investigate whether Clinton and Gore raised some of the soft money illegally.
With that controversy as a backdrop, some campaign overhaul advocates called for the elimination of soft money, saying it was corrupting the process. Two unsuccessful presidential candidates, McCain, an Arizona Republican, and former Senator Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat, met during this year's New Hampshire primary to announce that they agreed that soft money should be eliminated. That was followed by Gore's pledge not to start a DNC soft money advertising campaign unless Republicans went first.
