CAMPAIGN ’88 : Cuomo’s Party Calls
New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said Friday he discussed the possibility of a brokered Democratic National Convention in telephone conversations he had this week with, among others, former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon. Babbitt has quit the race for the presidential nomination while Simon has cut back on his campaigning to concentrate on his home state’s March 15 primary.
But Cuomo said he wants no part of a brokered convention, either as the presidential candidate or a kingmaker in selection of the party’s nominee.
He said he still did not believe there will be a deadlocked convention when the Democrats gather in Atlanta in July.
“I just asked them how they thought it would come out,” Cuomo said. “They said it looks now like it’s open.”
Cuomo said that in discussing the situation, neither Simon nor Babbitt had asked if Cuomo might become a candidate at a brokered convention. “They know I’m not interested. They know I’m out of this thing,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo, who announced a year ago that he would not seek the Democratic nomination, has since refused to rule out accepting a convention draft.
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