Slaying May Be Catalyst That Decides N.Y. Mayor Race

The racial violence that has shaken a Brooklyn neighborhood has magnified the battle of constituency politics for the chief contenders in New York’s bitterly fought Democratic mayoral primary.

Fear and anger, many politicians believe, could drive up turnout, and the candidate best able to mobilize his supporters could win what is perceived as a very close election on Sept. 12.

In an effort to mobilize black voters, Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins, who is seeking to become the city’s first black mayor, will campaign with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But the appearances are designed to be muted, in the hope of not alienating the white voters, particularly liberal Jews, that Dinkins needs to win.

Meanwhile, Mayor Edward I. Koch is airing a TV commercial featuring paralyzed police officer Steven McDonald, who was shot on duty in Central Park on July 12, 1986. The trauma of McDonald’s ordeal is clear in his voice and on his face, filling the television screen.

“Ed Koch is a mayor who is good for our cops and our kids too,” the policeman tells potential voters. “He is a mayor who knows that the things that unite us outweigh the things that divide us. He hurts when we hurt. He smiles when we smile. He leads when others won’t.”

The camera then pans to McDonald’s wife, Patti Ann. “Ed Koch has been a good mayor and a good friend,” she says.

Bensonhurst and its potential backlash have brought new attention to white Catholic voters. These voters had supported the mayor in his early years, but most recently, because of charges of corruption in the Koch Administration, they were dissatisfied with the mayor. In recent Democratic mayoral elections, many white Catholics simply stayed home.

The Koch commercial is a clear effort to change that and win over these voters, who had been expected to be largely indifferent to the contest between Koch and Dinkins.

Which appeals will work best in the charged environment are still uncertain. New Yorkers arose Friday to television newscasts and the front pages of tabloids showing pictures of policemen clashing with black demonstrators at one end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Headlines proclaimed “Rage” and “Outrage.”

The funeral Wednesday of a black youth who was shot to death 10 days ago in Bensonhurst was as much a political event as an exercise in mourning. Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Koch faced hecklers outside the church. The Rev. Louis Farrakhan, who has disparaged Jews, preached the principal sermon. Jackson, who attended the wake the night before, did not come to the funeral. Some sources said it was because of Farrakhan’s presence.

On Thursday, black activist Rev. Al Sharpton and others organized a “Day of Outrage.” Some 7,500 demonstrators seeking to march on City Hall to protest the death of Yusuf Hawkins clashed with police at the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters hurled bottles, sticks and bricks at police, injuring 44 officers.

On Friday, Joseph Fama, the 18-year-old white youth suspected of firing the shots that killed Hawkins, was held without bail on charges of 2nd-degree murder.

Supporters of Dinkins believe the anger over Bensonhurst will bring greater numbers of black voters to the polls.

But the killing has also “reintroduced Al Sharpton and the Rev. Farrakhan into the middle of the contest,” said Richard Wade, a professor of urban history at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. “The two of them have always frightened whites of all persuasion--liberals as well as conservatives--much more than Jesse Jackson. Their prominence may transform the election from a contest between Dinkins and Koch to a contest between Sharpton and Koch. In that election, the advantage is clearly on Koch’s side.”

In Democratic mayoral primaries, black voters contribute more than a quarter of the total vote, Jewish voters more than one third. Most politicians expect Dinkins to do well among liberal Jewish voters, Koch to draw strongly among conservative Jews.