Ferraro Hints She May Not Run for Senate

Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro hinted strongly Friday that she might not run for a U.S. Senate seat from New York in 1986 because she feels she would be the target of “a very dirty campaign.”

Ferraro, who has been writing a book and making speeches since her l984 campaign, said she would decide about a Senate bid in November. She recently commissioned a poll to measure voters’ attitudes toward her and her potential opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato.

“I’m not quite sure that I want to run even if the polls show it’s possible,” Ferraro said after appearing before the National Women’s Political Caucus here. Even if the numbers are good, she said, “I’d be kidding myself to suggest that I won’t have a very dirty campaign run against me. I’m not sure if I’m ready to run again.” She added that she is not sure how her family would react to such a campaign.

Husband’s Legal Problems

Her husband, John A. Zaccaro, still has legal problems involving his real estate dealings, and the family’s finances were investigated intensively during the campaign.

Despite any misgivings about future campaigns, Ferraro, a Roman Catholic, seemed more than willing to return the political fire she took on the abortion issue in 1984. She urged the political activists not to let “male-dominated conservative religious interests make our decisions for us” on abortion.

The right to choose an abortion, Ferraro told the applauding convention, is “inseparable from our struggle for political and economic independence.” For poor women, that choice is “the core of their freedom.” The choice should be “personal, not political,” and should be the woman’s to make, she said. “It does not belong to Jerry Falwell or Ronald Reagan.”