Dole Gains Ground

President Clinton's lead in two national tracking polls has slipped in recent days, but he maintained substantial leads in new surveys of New York and New Jersey voters, and is ahead in a poll in the key battleground state of Ohio.

An ABC News tracking poll released Monday showed 49 percent favoring Clinton and Vice President Gore, while 41 percent backed GOP nominee Bob Dole and his running mate, Jack Kemp. Another 5 percent were behind Reform Party nominee Ross Perot and running mate Pat Choate.

ABC's survey of 623 likely voters, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, has a 4.5 point error margin. A week ago, Clinton led 53- 38, with 5 percent for Perot, in an ABC poll. The new survey was the first to name vice presidential nominees. Meawhile, Clinton leads Dole 51-35 percent in a CNN/USA Today tracking poll, also released Monday, with Perot getting 7 percent. That 16-point lead is substantially less than the 23-point lead Clinton averaged in the same poll earlier last week. The latest poll of 709 likely voters has a 4 point error margin.

But in New York, a poll published Sunday by the Syracuse Herald American and Albany Times-Union gives Clinton a 56-24 percent lead over Dole, with Perot at 3 percent. That poll of 707 likely voters conducted Sept. 8-11 has a 4 point error margin.

In New Jersey, regarded as a swing state this year, Clinton holds a 57-29 percent lead over Dole, according to a poll by the Star-Ledger and Eagleton Institute published Sunday. That survey of 627 registered voters was conducted Sept. 5-12 and has a 4 point error margin. And in Ohio, which Clinton visited Monday, a University of Cincinnati poll published by the Cincinnati Enquirer gave the president a 47-38 edge over Dole, with 6 percent for Perot.

The survey of 627 likely voters, taken Sept. 3-10, has a 3.9 point error margin.