Race, Leadership Are Key N.Y. Campaign Issues : Election: Dinkins is hurt by doubts that he can cope with uncertainties and crises. His lead in the mayoral contest narrows.

Through the windows of the penthouse high above Manhattan, the guests could see the spectacular shimmering lights of skyscrapers and bridges glowing in the night.

But the audience in the room had little interest in the view that has inspired generations of artists as diverse as George Gershwin and Woody Allen. They had come to be reassured, and it was the task of Democratic mayoral candidate David N. Dinkins, wearing a hand-woven yarmulke, to allay their fears.

Moments earlier, Robert Abrams, New York State’s attorney general, had spoken on Dinkins’ behalf to the group of rabbis and Jewish community leaders, a crucial constituency.

He told how Dinkins, who is seeking to be the city’s first black mayor, was a strong supporter of Israel and human rights and how the candidate had traveled with a delegation of prominent Jews to Bitburg to protest President Ronald Reagan’s visit to a cemetery containing Nazi graves.

When his turn came to speak, Dinkins said: “We are on the threshold of what I hope will be history.

“Across the country and abroad, people are reading about this contest. I ask no one to vote for me because I am Afro-American. But I also ask no one to not vote for me because I am Afro-American.”

Dinkins remarks were warm and personal, at times eloquent. But, after he had departed, skepticism remained with the half-empty trays of canapes.

“There was a lot of fear,” a man said, spurning a fund-raising pledge card. “We’ll see.”

“He comes off as a nice guy,” added another guest. “I don’t know if he comes off as a leader.”

Race and the quality of leadership are central issues as New Yorkers prepare to elect their 106th mayor next Tuesday.

Dinkins, the Manhattan Borough president, is opposed by former federal prosecutor Rudolph W. Giuliani in a contest that has grown tighter in recent days.

Issues have faded to secondary importance. Both Dinkins and Giuliani favor hiring more policemen to fight crime and drugs, both agree on the need to improve New York’s air quality and to keep transit fares at current levels, if possible. The candidates agree that budgetary problems next year will sharply limit the chance for broad initiatives.

Dinkins continues to lead in the polls, riding a campaign of conciliation and civility that stresses his desire to serve as a unifier in a racially troubled city.

But Dinkins, a 62-year-old clubhouse politician who has held only one previous municipal elective office, faces questions of whether he can cope in the crucible of uncertainties, rivalries and crises that shape the mayoralty of the nation’s largest city. New York’s 106th mayor will take office on Jan. 1 at a difficult time. If voters on Election Day approve, he will face a new city charter. The economy is cooling, fiscal problems are growing, and the expensive and socially wrenching dilemmas of drugs, AIDS and poverty await fresh initiatives.

He will face the challenge of roads and bridges badly in need of repair, a public school system in need of reform, a middle class buffeted by high taxes and inefficient services, a set of difficult contract negotiations with the municipal unions.

Recent polls show Dinkins’ lead over Giuliani ranging from 4 to 18 points. But significant numbers of potential voters have been moving from the Democratic column to undecided.

The New York Times voiced the discontent of many voters, lamenting the quality of the campaign when it tepidly endorsed Dinkins.

“The sorry nature of this contest makes a hard choice harder,” the paper said. “Democrat Dinkins has shown little in the way of managerial skills; Republican Giuliani has demonstrated few political skills.”

Dinkins “has a reputation for indecision and reinforced it during the campaign,” the paper added, but “he understands New York’s government, neighborhoods and people. He is not the ideal candidate but he is a good man likely to make a decent mayor.”

Meanwhile, after a very shaky start, Giuliani’s campaign finally has taken shape.

The 45-year-old former prosecutor with a national reputation for fighting white-collar crime on Wall Street, has tried to meet the racial issue head on.

“The suggestion that this contest should center on race is not fair to the voters. It’s divisive. It panders to fear,” Giuliani said in a speech this week.

Giuliani said that he was sensitive and understood the need for racial harmony, and, if elected mayor, would “have as great a responsibility . . . if not greater” than Dinkins to bring the city together.

He has accused Dinkins of “sloppiness and indecision” and of “running away” from the city’s projected $1-billion budget gap in the next fiscal year. And he has sought to cast Dinkins in the mold of the old politics.

“I don’t believe that the voters want to continue a City Hall run by old, opportunistic, vested interests that have cast a thick cloud over how the city is run,” the candidate tells audiences. “It is time to give our city new thinking, new energy, new commitments, new ways of dealing with problems. What David Dinkins offers is a return and continuation of the old way.”

Giuliani, who frequently promotes his own experience fighting crime and drugs, leads among white Catholics and divides the Jewish vote with Dinkins, according to some polls.

But Giuliani still suffers from a perception that he is more a prosecutor than a prospective mayor. He was also hurt during the GOP primary by a constant bombardment of negative commercials by cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder, who charged that Giuliani was not a true Republican because was also running on the Liberal Party ticket.

Analysts say which voting groups turn out will be the critical. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a ratio of 5 to 1 in New York.

Dinkins hopes that traditional Democrats, particularly liberal Jewish voters and Latinos, will join his strong base of black support and that he will gain a large enough share of the white Catholic vote to put him over the top.

In an effort to energize those voters, Dinkins has campaigned with outgoing Mayor Edward I. Koch, whom he defeated in the Democratic primary, and other well known Democratic figures, such as New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Dinkins has also pledged that his Administration will be independent of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped energize black voters in the primary but so far has played a far lesser role in Dinkins general election campaign.

“If I become mayor, I and I alone will be the mayor,” the candidate reassures Jewish audiences.

In a further effort at reassurance, Dinkins stresses his mainstream Democratic ties, promising that his council of economic advisers will include such financial leaders as Felix G. Rohatyn, the investment banker, who played a prominent part helping solve New York’s fiscal crisis two decades ago. Dinkins pledges he will insist that municipal unions supporting him become “partners for progress” in labor negotiations.

As the contest has become closer, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who played a key role in his father’s campaigns, has become a prominent strategist in the Dinkins campaign.

The Manhattan Borough president’s mainstream philosophy stems in good measure from his political mentor, J. Raymond Jones, the first black leader of Tammany Hall, the Manhattan Democratic organization.

Jones’ Carver Democratic Club in Harlem in the 1950s and 1960s was an incubator of political talent, nurturing not only Dinkins but such prominent black Democrats as Rep. Charles B. Rangel, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and former Deputy Mayor Basil Paterson.

Dinkins was introduced by his father-in-law, a Harlem politician, to Jones.

“I thought he was a person I would like to get behind,” the former Tammany leader said in a phone interview from the Virgin Islands, where he is retired.

“I think he (David) is very smart. He benefits not only from experience but from contacts with other people. He listens. He is a good selector of ideas. He is very polite. That is traditional in the Carver (club).”

Jones taught Dinkins and his other proteges that, to succeed downtown, the politics of inclusion was necessary.

“I figured out a long time ago that one could not be successful in New York City unless you had an appreciation of all the groups in the communities,” Jones said.

“I had not gotten where I am had I not solidified my base and reached out to others,” Dinkins tells voters. “ . . . I’ve tried to concentrate on what brings us together.”

That unifying philosophy, plus a good dash of caution, have been steady threads running through Dinkins’ two elected offices--a single term as state assemblyman and Manhattan Borough president--plus a number of somewhat ceremonial jobs gained with the help of New York’s Democratic organization.

Over the years, Dinkins has served as a Democratic district leader, head of the Board of Elections, City Clerk and a board member of the State Urban Development Corp. Some of these posts were part time, allowing him to practice law. Dinkins’ wife, Joyce, whose father was a Harlem assemblyman, is coordinator of metropolitan affairs for the state Division of Taxation and Finance.

After serving in the Marines during World War II, Dinkins, whose father was a barber in Trenton, N.J., majored in mathematics at Howard University and was graduated with honors. In 1956, he received a law degree from New York Law School. The Marines and math have left their mark. At times, he can be very precise, correcting in private the grammar of his close friends. In the Marine tradition, he is impeccably dressed in public, changing his sharply-pressed dark suit several times on humid days.

Dinkins can also be imprecise. He was forced to withdraw as a deputy mayor in the Administration of former Mayor Abraham D. Beame, after he disclosed to the City Department of Investigation on a routine background questionnaire that he had failed to file federal, state and city income taxes for four years.

His explanation has remained constant over two decades. He said he was busy as a lawyer dealing with his clients’ matters; a tax withholding form was filed along with the partnership form from his law firm. No criminal charges were brought and Dinkins paid all penalties.

Dinkins’ personal finances continued to cause political problems during the mayoral campaign. Questions were raised over the true value of stock in a media company headed by Sutton, his political patron, that Dinkins said he sold to his son.

Politicians who have worked with Dinkins over the years say more than some previous mayors, the quality of his deputy mayors and staff will be very important in determining the success of his Administration.

“He is a gentleman. He has an instinct for the common good, which bodes well. He does what he thinks is right. He has a controlled personality and people underestimate him,” said a state official who has dealt with Dinkins on the local level. Yet, “he is not a high-pressure driven personality. You can’t compare him to a mule in his talent for work. He will need good people around him.

“He has a hard time making up his mind about decisions,” added a lobbyist who has brought issues of land use before the borough president’s office. “He has people on his staff who guide him toward the right decision. It will be an Administration of committees to tell him what to do. When he was thinking of running for mayor, he formed a committee to advise him what to do.”