‘88 Candidacy a No-No, He Insists : Cuomo’s Finding It Hard to Convince Non-Believers

It was a mandatory ritual of New York politics, but for Mario M. Cuomo, it was a ritual of another sort.

Fresh from attending his daughter’s wedding, the governor of New York stood amid a marching band at the head of the Columbus Day parade on 5th Avenue. As Cuomo insisted yet again to a crowd of reporters that he is not a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spectators shouted, “Run, Mario, Run!”

Mayor Edward I. Koch, at Cuomo’s shoulder as the parade moved toward St. Patrick’s Cathedral, offered encouragement for a convention draft. “We should select Mario Cuomo,” Koch said--praise that the governor quickly batted away with banter.

From Moscow to Manhattan to California--wherever he goes--Mario Matthew Cuomo sprinkles political denials like a reluctant Johnny Appleseed. The other day, in Rochester, N. Y., he even joked that his own mother doesn’t believe he isn’t thinking of running. A couple of days later, using his 86-year-old mother as a lending library of aphorisms, he quipped to a delighted audience: “My mother said, ‘Stay out of drafts.’ ”

Still, a serious fact remains: Despite his professed lack of interest in the White House, Cuomo continues to cast a giant shadow over the formal Democratic presidential field--a shadow that could grow even larger if the economy seriously falters. He has emerged as an important conscience of the Democratic Party.

“When I am outside of D. C., the only thing that people around the country want to know is, ‘Do you think there is a chance that Cuomo can get into it?’ ” said Harrison Hickman, a Democratic political pollster, in a view seconded by many other political consultants. “He is the one person in America on the Democratic side who could rewrite the rules of the standard nominating process. . . . He is uniquely situated to run at the end if there is no obvious choice.”

“There is great interest and he would cause a sensation if he got into the race,” added Robert D. Squier, founder of the Communications Co., a Washington-based political consulting firm. However, Squier cautioned: “Already people in the process are falling in love with the candidates in the race.”

Cuomo attributes all the attention to a “vacuum period” and to “celebrity,” adding that it all will change when the primaries actually begin.

‘What Was His Name?’

“When all these people start winning in Iowa and New Hampshire, they will become celebrities, too,” he said. “They will get their name on the cover of Newsweek, on the cover of Time, on the cover of U.S. News & World Report. They will get eight days in a row on national television and you will be back to Cuomo . . . what was his name?”

But for the moment at least, there is a deep longing among many Democrats for someone else, whether Cuomo, or Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey or Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia. Both Bradley and Nunn have said they will not run in the primaries and are not candidates for President.

In an interview with The Times, Cuomo admitted that theoretically it would be possible for him to accept a draft, run for President and still manage New York state.

The exigencies of governing, especially during the legislative session and budgetary process, which he has stressed preclude entering primaries, would not come into play during the general election.

“If you would go from the convention on, you would be in the Roosevelt position,” Cuomo said. “It would mean from July ’88 to November ‘88, which is theoretically the summer recess.”

“The doldrums,” added Fabian G. Palomino, special counsel to the governor and Cuomo’s longtime friend and political confidant. “That is why he can go to Russia.”

Rejects Talk of Draft

Cuomo dismissed talk of a draft, however, as counterproductive. “I think to encourage this kind of talk for a moment is to depreciate the candidates, hurt the process. It’s not good. That’s why I said on the ‘Phil Donahue Show’ I would consider making a Shermanesque statement if that helps the process now. I think as long as the possibility of an open convention is taken seriously, people don’t look seriously enough at the existing candidates.”

He paused for a brief moment. “On the other hand, I am not convincing anybody.”

The political process was far different when another New York governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gained the Democratic nomination in 1932--a fact Cuomo tells audiences. Roosevelt made only a few speeches. He faced no primaries to consume time and attention. When John F. Kennedy sought the White House, he ran only in four primaries, Cuomo also reminds listeners.

The other night, while Cuomo was lecturing at the New School for Social Research in New York’s Greenwich Village, a man in the audience got up and announced that he was frustrated when the governor said he would not seek to lead the nation.

Cuomo replied, speaking hypothetically: “All I had to do is not run for governor, which is what Nixon did and Reagan did and Mondale did and Hart did, just say, ‘I want to be President,’ be honest about it, simple about it, be clear about it, do the right thing.”

For a moment, thinking a declaration was in the offing, the audience burst into applause. But Cuomo changed direction:

“There is nothing wrong with the system. I know what I can do. I know what my competence level is. I am not better than they are. If you heard Al Gore and Bruce Babbitt and Mike Dukakis or Paul Simon, if you heard them up here for as long as you are listening to me, they would be as impressive to you at least as I am. . . . I am convinced they have the stuff and you will see it eventually.”

Later, upstairs, in a dean’s office, Cuomo, his jacket off, relaxed over Brie, grapes and New York state wine with his aide Palomino.

He dissected an appraisal of a theoretical Cuomo candidacy put forth some days earlier by William Schneider, The Times’ political analyst and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“The shape of the race would be everybody against Cuomo,” Schneider had predicted. “They would all claim to be new-model Democrats with new ideas and pragmatic approaches and try to paint Cuomo as the candidate of the old politics. They’d all try to make him Walter Mondale. That problem emerges the moment he declares.

“Also, the minute he declares, he loses status. That’s part of the game. The press would have a field day with Mario Cuomo. They would fall all over themselves looking for suspicious family connections, and people who dislike him in New York, and his insecurities, and evidence of his thin skin. That may be why he’s not running, which is not to say he has anything to hide. It’s just that no sensible person wants to put up with that process. That’s why, if he really wants to be President, his best chance may be a stalemate of the party.”

Cuomo was asked to dissect the appraisal. “I have said myself, I’d go from giant to dwarf,” he said, also agreeing that the press would go after him like greyhounds after a rabbit. “But, presumably, they have been doing that for a lot of years.”

The governor said it would be “probably true” that the shape of the race would be everybody against Cuomo. “But that would be as much an opportunity as it would be a problem. That would make you king immediately. . . . I said in 1982 when Koch started attacking me, I said, ‘This is great.’ ”

Cuomo dismissed as “ridiculous” any attempt to paint him as an “old politics” candidate.

“They don’t know anything about the record, about the prison cells, about the tough laws. They don’t know anything about the layoffs, unions picketing me,” he said. “They just don’t know the record. That one would be easy. . . . They get these stereotypes in their head. They hear compassion and they say ‘liberal.’ ”

Cuomo said he views the process of seeking the presidency as “not any tougher than the New York process,” adding that he has “been treated like a candidate for a long time at the state level, even as a possible presidential candidate.” The governor said any focus on his personal life and his family “would be my strongest suit.”

‘Don’t Want to Be President’

“I really don’t want to be President in the sense that this is my objective,” he explained, commenting on the theory that a stalemate at the Democratic National Convention is his best chance. “I really don’t have it as my objective, and, from the beginning, I have not had it as my objective. They, the candidates, have it as their objective.

“They felt that destiny called them or they wanted it or they were needed, whatever their personal motivation, which I am sure, was the very best motivation. I did not have the same motivation. I did not feel I was called by destiny. . . .

“That doesn’t mean I am not self-confident. . . . But I have never felt this powerful impulse. That does not mean I am afraid of it or I wouldn’t do it if I felt I must do it. I just don’t feel that way, never have.”

Meanwhile, Cuomo is the happiest non-candidate in America. He is a sought-after speaker, and continues to polish his political rhetoric. His family prospers in New York. His governorship certainly is secure. He offers encouragement to all the Democratic contenders slogging across bridges in Iowa and New Hampshire, while he and members of his Cabinet seek to build bridges between Albany, N. Y. and Moscow. A number of exchange programs stemming from Cuomo’s recent Soviet Union trip are being planned. He touches bases widely within the Democratic Party.

Convincing Non-Candidate

“He’s running the most convincing non-campaign in modern American history,” Schneider said. “He shows up in a lot of strange places for someone who isn’t a presidential candidate, like Moscow, Washington, Texas and California.”

“How many states have you spoken in?” Cuomo was asked at the New School. “Not enough to make a candidacy,” he replied, smiling between bites of Brie.

Is there a danger that Cuomo could end up regarded as the Great Kibitzer of Campaign ‘88? The governor is aware of the potential hazard and has asked a number of Democrats, including Democratic Party Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr., to warn him if they detect any such danger.

“At the slightest sign of that, I would discontinue all speaking,” Cuomo said.

Don’t bet on it soon.

Researcher Eileen V. Quigley contributed to this story.