POLITICAL BRIEFING

NEW YORK REDUX: Unless all the insiders are wrong, the Democrats are heading back to New York for their 1992 presidential nominating convention. That’s because the Big Apple has come up with more money than its only competitor, New Orleans. The Democratic National Committee, decided that New York’s $20-million package was an offer it couldn’t refuse.

And New Orleans’ bid was clouded by the Louisiana Legislature’s recent effort to adopt the nation’s strictest abortion bill. A first bill failed, but a second measure awaits Gov. Buddy Roemer’s signature. The Democrats convened in New York in 1976 and again in 1980. In 1988, the Democrats tried a Southern strategy, staging their convention in Atlanta, but the party failed to carry a single Southern state for the Michael S. Dukakis-Lloyd Bentsen ticket.

L.A. GOLD: With fund-raising receipts lagging, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is hoping to collect at least $500,000 at a major fund-raising dinner in Los Angeles next Monday. Though some insiders doubt the take will be that high, the committee needs a good showing; through March, it had raised only $5.4 million, 30% less than at the comparable point in the last election and only one-third as much as the Republican congressional committee.

After some disappointing recent experiences in Los Angeles, the committee is deploying its big guns for the dinner. Virtually all of the congressional leadership, from Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) to such powerful committee chairmen as Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), are slated to appear.

Co-chairmen for the event are Southern California Edison Chairman Howard P. Allen and MCA Chairman Lew R. Wasserman, who is hosting a private reception for major donors at his home Sunday.

STATE RUSH: On the eve of the decennial redistricting of Congress, the national parties are intensifying their competition for control of the state legislatures that will draw the lines in most states.

Democrats, who already control more than two-thirds of the statehouses, hope to pump more than $2 million into state legislative races through two organizations: IMPAC 2000, run by the House Democratic leadership, and Project 500, a coalition of party activists and unions.

Republicans, meanwhile, are providing technical and fund-raising help as well as direct contributions to state legislators through a 12-member Legislative Strike Force operating out of the Republican National Committee. Vice President Dan Quayle recently made appearances to raise money for local legislative committees in Michigan, New York and elsewhere.

Among the states both sides are targeting: New York, Washington, Arizona and Michigan, where Republicans hold narrow state Senate majorities; Illinois, Oregon and Florida, where the Democratic majority in one chamber is precarious; and Pennsylvania and Indiana, where both houses are closely balanced. History suggests a Democratic edge; traditionally the party out of the White House has made substantial gains in state legislatures during off-year elections.