Rockefeller Expected to Bow Out of ’92 Campaign : Politics: West Virginia senator has called a news conference for today. Signs point to a decision not to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

West Virginia Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV is expected to announce at a press conference today in Charleston, W. Va., that he has abandoned the idea of seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in a year when the odds against his party regaining the White House are long.

“Everybody that I know pretty well assumes that he’s not going to run,” Charles S. Smith, Democratic Party chairman in West Virginia, said Tuesday night. “Every indication I see is that he is pulling out.”

In announcing the press conference, Laura Quinn, Rockefeller’s Senate communications director, said only that “it will make news.” But its location in the capital of the senator’s home state, rather than in Washington, and the absence of any plans for an extended campaign tour suggested that the 54-year-old Rockefeller was going to take himself out of presidential consideration, rather than declare his candidacy.

Rockefeller aides had said previously that if the senator was going to bid for the nomination, he would hold off on making an announcement for at least a few weeks. An announcement sooner, they indicated, would mean that he had decided not to run.

In addition, Rockefeller last week canceled previously scheduled visits to California and New Hampshire--decisions that took on added significance because they followed extended consultations with his wife and other family members about whether to enter the race.

A longtime friend who talked to Rockefeller after these family conferences said that the senator told him he was still making up his mind about entering the campaign. But this friend said: “He sounded so relaxed, it was hard to believe that he was still thinking about running.”

The Associated Press reported that an unnamed Democratic Party source had said that Rockefeller had informed top aides that he had decided not to run. The senator’s press conference will follow by two weeks the announcement of House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, who made a strong showing in the early 1988 presidential competition, that he would not seek the nomination in 1992.

So far, the only Democrat to officially declare for the presidency is former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas.

Four others have acknowledged that they are seriously considering entering the race. They are Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who has already made a strong impression on party liberals with his populist rhetoric, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., who ran in 1988, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, head of the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of self-styled centrists, and Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the first elected black state chief executive.

Other possibilities are New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, though he insists he has no plans to run, and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who has made bids for the nomination in 1984 and 1988.

The prospect of a Rockefeller candidacy attracted great interest among Democrats since he disclosed last May that he was seriously considering the possibility of running. Many party leaders have regarded his famous name and his moderately liberal record in the Senate and as governor of West Virginia as assets that would make him a formidable challenger to President Bush’s anticipated bid for reelection.

Also seen as pluses for Rockefeller were his expertise on national health insurance, considered to be a potent political issue, and his chairmanship of the National Commission on Children.

Rockefeller pursued the possibility of a candidacy vigorously in the last few months, traveling widely and making a generally favorable impression. Nevertheless, as time for a decision drew near, he continued to point out that he had not made a final commitment to running.

One problem he mentioned was the potential conflict between his candidacy and the career of his wife, Sharon, the daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles H. Percy and now the president of Washington’s public television station, WETA. Another difficulty was the task of developing a strategy that would allow him not only to win the nomination but also to mount a strong general election campaign.

Times political writer Ronald Brownstein, in Los Angeles, contributed to this story.