Walking a Fine Line in N.Y., N.Y. : If They Make It There--Then Maybe Anywhere?

Mayor Edward I. Koch threw both arms into the air and roared at the Upper East Side commuters as they scurried into the subway early Monday morning.

“Hi, everybody! Al Gore and me!”

At Koch’s side, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. was trying a more traditional approach. “I need your vote and support,” Gore murmured, as he shook another hand. “Thank you.”

In many ways, the moment typified the New York Democratic primary campaign, a two-week odyssey ending today in which presidential candidates sought to be embraced by New York and fought not to be smothered by it at the same time.

“I’ve enjoyed New York--everything is so subtle,” said Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, with a roll of his eyes and a grimace on his face.

Subtle as a sledgehammer, perhaps. Subtle as a screaming “Koch Calls Jax a Liar” headline in Monday’s Daily News about Koch’s assertion that the Rev. Jesse Jackson lied about cradling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he was shot.

‘Say Something Meaningful’

Subtle as the fiery young Hasidic Jew, in full beard and side locks, who shouted, “Say something meaningful” at a Dukakis rally in Brooklyn’s Borough Park.

Subtle as the buttons worn by several in the crowd at the Salute to Israel parade here Sunday. “I’m a tough Hymie--Jews Against Jackson” they read, a reference to Jackson’s private description of New York in 1984 as “Hymietown.” Jackson has repeatedly apologized for using the term, but the antipathy was evident.

“It’s the same Jackson,” said Jacob Davidson, 19, a student at City College. “A new suit of clothes. But he hasn’t changed.”

On Monday, the intensity jumped a notch. Koch took Gore to his lucky subway stop at Lexington Avenue and 77th Street, where he has gone after each of his mayoral victories, but at the same time he kept up his attack on Jackson, saying that Jackson’s absence from the Salute to Israel parade was “an insult to the city.”

Gore sought to distance himself a bit from Koch. The mayor “speaks for himself,” he said.

Jackson, in a speech to the nonpartisan Assn. for a Better New York, did not respond directly to Koch but referred to those “who are inclined because of their fears to be bent toward hysteria.

“Leaders must set a high moral tone. I will not surrender that tone to diversions.”

Labels Koch ‘a Lunatic’

But his campaign manager, Gerald F. Austin, said: “Koch is a lunatic. By New York standards, he is a lunatic.”

All three candidates again sought to tap ethnic communities for votes.

Dukakis, relying on white ethnic voters in suburban and upstate New York to bring him victory, on Monday addressed steelworkers in Buffalo, office workers in Manhattan, junior high students and parents in Syracuse, college students in Rochester. At night, he shot baskets in a high school gymnasium in Brooklyn.

Perhaps because of his disappointing performance Saturday, when he threw the first ball of the season for the Buffalo Bisons, a triple A farm team, into the dirt, Dukakis told the steelworkers that if elected President, “I’ll do what I can to get a major league team to Buffalo.”

“He’s a straight shooter,” said Stan Gajkowski, 42, a maintenance supervisor. “He tells it like it is. He’s not two-faced like the other politicians.”

His Monday sojourn followed a day in which he and his wife, Kitty, marched a mile down 5th Avenue in the Salute to Israel parade, talked about the elderly at a forum, tossed the opening ball at an Irish soccer game and addressed a rally in Spanish beside the governor of Puerto Rico as a conga line of dancers chanted “Mike Dukakis! Presidente!”

“I wouldn’t say we hit every ethnic group,” explained state campaign director Paul Bograd. “But most of them.”

Sounds Confident

Dukakis appeared upbeat and sounded confident Monday. “We’re looking forward to a great victory tomorrow here in the state of New York,” he told a rain-soaked noon rally on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan. “With your help we’ll get it.”

Jackson had another emotional campaign day in New York City.

He called Ines Mendoza, the widow of Puerto Rican national hero Luis Munoz Marin, for the benefit of a Latino radio show.

Jackson, who won the non-binding Puerto Rican primary but lost out in the state party-managed delegate allocation to Dukakis, sounded the appeal of a candidate denied what was due him. “It’s like voting is a play thing but delegates are a serious thing,” he said.

Jackson on Monday inspired public reaction rarely seen at political events, continuing a campaign in which he has been greeted in the New York City’s poorer communities as hero and savior.

“We love you, Jesse,” voters cried out as he passed by, and at least a dozen were crying as well, expressing what some said was joy at finally seeing in person the candidate who was the instrument of their hope.

One black man in his 60s, wearing tattered jeans and leaning on a cane, stood beaming but with tears streaming down his face as Jackson spoke in Spanish Harlem, mouthing “Jesse Jackson” over and over again.

‘God Is With Me’

“God is with me today,” the man proclaimed later, in tearful rapture after Jackson flashed him a thumbs-up sign from the steps of his waiting bus. And then, as Jackson bounded from the bus and embraced him, he said: “God is with us!”

With rain falling steadily all day, the turnout at Jackson’s outdoor rallies Monday was far lower than expected, but the crowds still neared 800 at the morning events in Spanish Harlem and swelled to more than 3,000 at an evening rally in the center of Harlem’s black community.

But the rain seemed almost to be welcomed by Jackson and his aides, who are hoping for more of the same today in the belief that their supporters will be more likely to slog through puddles on their way to the polls than those of other candidates.

“If you will stand in the rain today, you will vote in the rain tomorrow,” Jackson roared to a crowd in Spanish Harlem.

“Let it rain! It’s liquid sunshine. Let it rain!”

Gore trailed Koch around the city, hearing the mayor describe him as “a young Jack Kennedy” and urging voters to put aside their fears that a vote for Gore would indirectly benefit Jackson by draining votes away from Dukakis.

‘Broke Through for Us’

“The mayor broke through for us, when he talked about having the courage to vote positively and reach out for hope instead of running from fear,” said Gore, who clearly needs a boost if polls putting him a distant third in the race are to be believed.

With Koch as his guide, Gore has managed to touch almost every ethnic base. The Baptist senator went to Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral early Sunday and several hours later marched in the Salute to Israel parade.

Gore sampled what Koch described as “the full ethnic menu”: pollo con arroz in the South Bronx, spaghetti in Little Italy and flat bread rolls and pickles on the Lower East Side.