The season of surrogates is in full flower. Their mission: bloody the opposition, raise money, amplify the message, test-market new themes and engage subjects deemed too risky for the candidate to touch. Technology has turned modern campaign surrogacy into a high-velocity game of charge-countercharge. Media markets where candidates appear are now routinely “bracketed” by opposition surrogates: one the day before his arrival and another after he leaves. Last week’s Clinton-Gore bus trip was a fat blip on the GOP radar screen. The night before the Democratic ticket rolled out of St. Louis, Republican Sen. John Danforth was on radio warning that new fuel-efficiency standards supported by Clinton could cost auto-assembly jobs. As the Clinton caravan entered Iowa the next day, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad reminded the state’s Democrats that Gore snubbed their 1988 presidential caucuses. A day later Bush’s domestic-policy czar Clayton Yeutter followed with satellite interviews on local TV.

Twelve years of White House incumbency gives the Republicans a big advantage in surrogate-slashing. Cabinet members easily mix official business with politics on trips. Matching surrogate with audience is an easy matter for campaign strategists: conservative star Jack Kemp for Reagan Democrats in California and the Midwest, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran for Southern and border states, Lujan for Hispanics and Western ranchers and miners. The core message is that the Democratic ticket isn’t what it appears to be. “Clinton and Gore’s generational theme is a charade. There’s simply a new generation of Dukakis-Mondale-Carter tax-and-spend Democrats,” says one set of talking points issued to GOP surrogates last month.

Clinton surrogates have been echoing the candidate’s mantra-that the election is about “change versus more of the same.” Democratic governors like Colorado’s Roy Romer and Georgia’s Zell Miller vouch for his Arkansas record. But so far the campaign has been more skilled at zapping opposing surrogates than organizing its own. “We are really just getting up and running,” says deputy political director Nancy McFadden. The stakes are high. Research says voters rely on familiar, credible public figures to validate their views of a candidate. “This is not a phony game. It helps people triangulate,” says political scientist and Clinton adviser Samuel Popkin.

The greatest advantage surrogates offer is convenient deniability. GOP campaign officials say deputy manager Mary Matalin acted alone when she launched last week’s “bimbo eruptions” fax against Clinton. They also disavow Rep. Bob Dornan’s tirade on the House floor last week. Dornan, a frequent campaign surrogate, mentioned Gennifer Flowers and called Clinton a “draft-dodging, womanizing son of a bitch.” (Privately, one senior strategist said it was great.) They also say Labor Secretary Lynn Martin wasn’t on script when she ridiculed Clinton and Gore as good-looking lightweights at a Sacramento GOP women’s group last month. “I think they’re darling……” Martin said. “Great hair. Great shirts.” The Clinton campaign says California cochairwoman Rep. Maxine Waters was on her own when she called Bush a “racist” last month. What’s undeniable is that the voices are harbingers of a bruising fall campaign.