New York Media Taxing Candidates’ Time and Budgets : Dukakis, Jackson and Gore Try to Drown Out Koch and Cuomo in a News Cacophony

To the visiting presidential candidates, the media in this state must seem like a gang of New York City cabdrivers with press passes: brutish, hard to direct and prone to making the ride as scary as possible.

The three Democratic contenders must also compete for headlines with Mayor Edward I. Koch and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

These rude realities have worked to confound the candidates’ media strategies for winning the Democratic primary Tuesday.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis has tried to play it safe both in advertisements and in his public appearances, but the press has caught him in rhetorical slips that have worked against the message of competence and experience he is trying to convey.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson also has tried to stay out of trouble. He has used anti-drug ads to make himself seem less threatening to white voters, but he has faced perhaps the toughest press treatment of the campaign over his Middle East stands.

Gore’s Two-Edged Strategy

Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. has a two-edged media strategy, running a positive campaign in his ads while attacking his rivals through the press. Many political professionals say Gore’s method may be too diffuse to be effective and the intensity of the New York press may have broken his delicate plan apart.

The overall impression of the Democratic campaign is “babble,” said Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media Research, which monitors network coverage of the campaign. “Everybody has to yell louder than the next guy, and the result is cacophony.”

Rising above the cacophony is difficult too because no candidate is buying enough television time to saturate the airwaves.

Dukakis is spending roughly $800,000 here, including Spanish-language television and radio spots, according to aides. That is little more than half what his campaign at one time considered spending.

Jackson is spending $546,000 for TV and another $100,000 on radio time. It is more than Jackson has spent in all other states combined, but hardly enough to drown out the noise of the New York press.

Gore, who hired prominent New York political consultant David Garth to run his media campaign here, is spending more than $700,000, according to campaign manager Fred Martin. That is far less than original estimates, yet monitoring of television by The Times last week suggested that even this figure could be an exaggeration.

Eerie Anti-Drugs Ad

Most of Jackson’s ad budget is going into airing a somewhat eerie anti-drugs spot that Hollywood film maker Spike Lee shot in gritty black and white using a hand-held camera with a wide-angle lens.

The idea was to counterbalance what Jackson campaign officials expected to be his roughest press treatment to date. Jewish groups and Koch have excoriated Jackson for favoring a Palestinian state and refusing to meet with American Jewish leaders. Former New York Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro has criticized him, and reporters have repeatedly asked Jackson about possibly anti-Semitic remarks he made in 1984 and about his association that year with Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan.

Dukakis has aired three spots. One is biographical. Another, titled “Only One,” argues that he is the lone presidential candidate who has balanced a budget, cut taxes and created jobs.

The third spot hawks Dukakis’ record against drugs. This commercial, which the campaign decided to use after it conducted a “voter focus group” in New York, runs right at Jackson’s strong suit.

Dukakis Slips Noted

At the same time, the press has hit Dukakis hard for verbal slips.

Early in the week, Dukakis received negative coverage for appearing to be unclear on whether Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel or an international zone. He got similar criticism for assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir would meet with Palestinian Liberation Organization leaders if the PLO would recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Then the New York Daily News slammed him for suggesting, perhaps unintentionally, that he would use strategic nuclear weapons if the Soviet Union invaded Europe.

It was Gore, running third in most polls here, who had to try to accomplish the most through the media last week and had perhaps had the most difficulty doing it.

By attacking both Jackson and Dukakis repeatedly, Gore was trying to ensure himself of coverage, but Gore’s attacks were sometimes depicted in the press as examples of his desperation.

One reason, campaign officials said, is that in media-intense New York there are several cycles of news in a day.

Daily News Cycles

When Gore criticized Dukakis’ remarks on use of nuclear force, for instance, it was a prominent story on morning radio news. Later, the story changed when Dukakis managed to respond in on-camera interviews for the early evening television news.

Still later that evening, a third cycle had occurred and CBS News mentioned Gore’s criticisms to lead into a report on how desperate the Gore campaign had become.

Part of Gore’s problem, said media analyst Lichter, is the classic Catch-22 that any underdog faces. He needs more press coverage to rise in the polls, but he won’t get more coverage until he does rise in the polls.

“He’s at the point of saying anything to make a dent,” Lichter said.

Even Gore’s largely positive ads, which touch on trade, defense, foreign affairs, education and drugs, may be lost in the noise.

“I think they are better spots than Gore has had so far,” said Robert Beckel, who managed Walter F. Mondale’s presidential campaign in 1984. But he said Gore’s media budget is “right at the margin of having any impact at all.”

The Gore ads produced by Garth are distinguished largely, one Gore aide said in private, by the fact that the candidate’s groomed hair is allowed to blow in the wind.

“I’ve tried several times to get his hair spray away from him,” the staffer said.

Koch in Gore Spot

Gore’s newest spot features Koch on the City Hall steps endorsing Gore, but many think it seems more an ad for the mayor than for the Tennessee senator.

Indeed, another problem the candidates have in New York is that they have to share the stage with Koch and Cuomo.

Last Monday, the dominant story was that Cuomo had finally said he would refuse a draft at the Democratic convention. On Wednesday, Cuomo’s kind remarks about Jackson got as much air time and newspaper space as Gore’s attacks on Dukakis. On Thursday, the dominant story during the day was Koch’s endorsement of Gore. The leading political story on the news Friday night was Cuomo saying kind things about Dukak1769156128candidates have the story to themselves.