Clinton Kicks Off ’96 Fund-Raising Tour : Politics: The President will visit New Jersey, Arkansas and Chicago. White House has also begun search for campaign officials in key states.

WASHINGTON — President Clinton embarks today on the first major fund-raising tour of his reelection drive seeking to fatten his campaign war chest--and frighten off any insurgent Democrats contemplating a primary challenge.

As his political staff begins fleshing out its state organizations, Clinton visits Somerset, N.J., tonight, Little Rock, Ark., on Friday and Chicago next week for big-ticket fund-raisers. The $2.75 million in anticipated proceeds will join direct-mail contributions to produce an expected total of about $8 million by month’s end.

Federal matching funds are expected to add another $5 million.

Incumbency always eases the way for campaign fund raising, even for a President who has been up and down in the polls. Pointing to 80,000 individual contributions received to date, Clinton finance chairman Terence McAuliffe declared that the campaign’s effort was “the fastest, most successful start of any Democratic candidate ever. We are off to a roaring start.”

Yet some Democrats and other outsiders caution that however strong the start, Clinton is likely to have more trouble than most incumbents in raising money and energizing supporters. Part of the problem, they say, lies in Clinton’s proclivity to take positions that alienate core elements of the Democratic coalition, from organized labor to Democratic members of Congress, African Americans and gays and lesbians.

Also, Republicans have been aggressive in tapping both big corporate donors and individual contributors with ideological appeals and reminders that the GOP now dictates the agenda in Washington.

Many corporations, though attuned to the Republican anti-government and lower-tax philosophy, have given generously to Democrats because they controlled Congress for the last 40 years. Now, much of that so-called “access money” has cascaded to the GOP in a gusher that Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour likens to “getting a drink of water from a fire hydrant.”

Even so, there is little doubt that Clinton will be able to generate the maximum campaign treasury the law allows.

“My theory is that an incumbent will always be fully funded. The question is how much work and how much time does it take to get there,” said political analyst Charles Cook. “Having a President who has stepped on a lot of toes of party constituencies is likely to make it harder. It was smart for McAuliffe to start this early. . . . “

Cook added that Clinton may have hurt his cause with his recent decision to join with Republicans in pushing for a balanced budget, while differing on the timeline for achieving it.

Cook said that Democrats had been successfully painting Republicans as heartless when it comes to cuts in popular social programs, such as school lunches and Medicare, and that now Clinton had deprived them of a potent fund-raising appeal.

Additionally, Clinton’s policy switch may still provoke a primary challenge, some analysts predict. But the huge war chest he is now gathering will be a disincentive to such a challenge. Early fund raising “gives you another hard, tangible number you can use to show how much support you have in the party,” said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

McAuliffe said that he expects to raise the primary-season limit of $43 million by early next year.

Meanwhile, White House political officials have begun searching for Democrats to head their campaigns in large and strategically key states. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harold M. Ickes, the top White House political official, have been conducting interviews for such positions, sources say.

A large group of well-known Democrats are being considered for the top state post in California, the sources say. They include Kam Kuwata, former campaign manager for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.); Bill Carrick, a prominent Democratic media consultant, and Tom Umberg, a former state assemblyman from Orange County. But a decision apparently has been postponed until the fall at least.

Similarly, the White House has decided to postpone the choice of its top national reelection campaign officials, probably until the fall.

Eli Segal, head of the AmeriCorps national service program, has been prominently mentioned for the campaign chairman post, and Thomas E. Donilon, chief of staff for Secretary of State Warren Christopher, has been considered a leading candidate for day-to-day campaign manager. But the delay could change those decisions.