Jerry Brown Hints at Running for U.S. Senate in 1992 : Politics: The state Democratic Party chairman may seek Seymour’s seat. He says he wants to consult other political leaders before announcing candidacy.

Former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. strongly indicated Friday he will run for the U.S. Senate in 1992, but paying uncharacteristic heed to political protocol, he said he wants to talk to other Democratic Party leaders before disclosing his plans.

“You all know what I’m going to do,” Brown told reporters at a breakfast meeting for which the often tardy politico showed up 11 minutes early. “I’m not ready to say ‘yes’ today and the only reason why is that I want to talk to more people and do this in a deliberative fashion.”

In fact, the reporters did not know for certain, either before breakfast or afterward. Political insiders say Brown is determined to run, possibly for the two-year term of the seat assumed Wednesday by former Republican state Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim. While Brown seemed to come close to saying he would run, he declined to declare his candidacy.

But first, the state Democratic Party chairman said he wanted to meet other top Democrats to “pay them respect like some people say I haven’t done in the past.” Brown said he did not want to surprise them with the kind of “off-the-cuff comment” he had become known for.

Brown added he would run only if he could field a campaign that “breaks through the cynicism” surrounding a system that depends so much on campaign money. The cost of a winning Senate campaign in 1992 has been estimated as high as $20 million.

“I want to figure out a way to do this in a way that does not require spending 80% of my time going to cocktail parties in affluent neighborhoods, doing my tap dance to get people to give me money to buy the consultants to buy the video film to get myself elected,” Brown said.

He said he has such a plan in mind, but was not ready to divulge it. A Brown candidacy announcement could come in time for the state party to elect a successor at its convention March 1-3, he said.

Also at stake next year will be the six-year term of the seat being relinquished by Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston, who is suffering from prostate cancer and is under Senate investigation for his fund-raising relationship with fallen savings and loan kingpin Charles H. Keating Jr.

Democratic Reps. Barbara Boxer of Marin County and Robert T. Matsui of Sacramento have declared for the Senate and Rep. Mel Levine of Santa Monica is expected to announce soon whether he will run. Former San Francisco mayor and gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein also is interested.

Conservative Republican Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton may challenge Seymour in the GOP primary in June, 1992. Robert K. Dornan, another conservative congressman from Orange County, has said he may run for the Cranston seat.

Brown is in the second year of a four-year term as state party chairman, a position political observers say he sought as a means of political rehabilitation and to overcome his “Gov. Moonbeam” reputation.

But Brown expressed frustration with the party post while defending the job he did to revitalize it.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll stick to the nuts and bolts.’ ” But now, Brown said, “I want to get off the nuts and bolts.”

Brown seemed out of character in saying he cared about what other party leaders thought of him and in showing up on time for a meeting. He also appeared to enjoy making fun of himself rather than jabbing at others, as was his penchant.

Examples:

On the risks of having to run “perpetually” if he declared for the two-year Senate term: “Well, if you remember, I did run in ‘74, ‘76, ‘78, ’80 and ’82. No, as a matter of fact, I kind of like it.”

On the prospect of being viewed as an outside, non-Establishment candidate: “It’s difficult to do when you’re chairman of the party and you’ve been running for office all your life and your sister is treasurer and your father is the former governor.”

On whether being party chairman hurt his political image: “I have not seen any change since 1983, other than the fact my name recognition has dropped one point a year, from 96 to 88, or something like that.”

On how to rid himself of the Gov. Moonbeam image as a Senate candidate: “I don’t know. I suppose by . . . just being as direct as I can and just letting people have a chance to see me.”