Out-and-Out Feud : Politics: After council candidate announces she’s a lesbian, a rival reveals he’s HIV-positive. Both say they’re just being candid, but critics question their timing.

As he lopes down the streets of Greenwich Village and hands out campaign literature, Tom Duane looks warily to the right and left . . . like a poker player who’s just raised his bet in a high-stakes game.

Earlier this month, the City Council candidate and gay activist dropped a bombshell, telling 41,000 district voters in a letter: “In one sense, it’s nobody’s business that I’ve tested positive for the HIV virus in my blood. But I am a candidate for public office, and I believe in being candid.”

At a news conference following his revelation--believed to be unprecedented for a political candidate--Duane stressed that he was in good health and had not developed any of the AIDS-related symptoms that may result from HIV infection. The voters, he said quietly, had a right to know.

Duane’s Aug. 8 disclosure might have been written off as a foolish gamble, if he wasn’t running in a district considered winnable by a gay or lesbian candidate. An estimated 20% of the voters are homosexual, and as he shakes hands with residents, the boyish-looking activist concedes that his controversial move might draw votes in the Sept. 12 primary.

If his bet pays off, Duane could become the first openly gay candidate to win municipal office in the nation’s largest city. But his opponents are not about to fold their cards. Indeed, Duane’s chief rival--Liz Abzug, daughter of the famous former New York congresswoman--kicked off her campaign for the council seat in June by coming out of the closet and announcing that she is a lesbian.

She raised the ante last week by questioning whether Duane’s HIV revelation was calculated for political effect. Meanwhile, Duane’s camp has accused Abzug of playing politics with the timing of her own personal disclosure. The result is a nasty free-for-all in New York’s large gay and lesbian community, an escalating feud over Who Came Out First.

“It’s a very bizarre campaign,” says one veteran political consultant, who asked not to be identified. “She tells the world that she’s a lesbian. Then he ups the bet by saying he’s HIV-positive. It’s a game of ‘Can you top this?’--and the kind of thing that could only happen in New York.”

As the election nears, some observers fear that all this sniping may damage the gay and lesbian community. Yet others point out that negative campaigning and election hyperbole are as American as apple pie--among gays or anyone else.

“Is this fratricidal for us? I don’t think so,” says Derek Hodel, director of the People With AIDS Health Group. “Politics is about struggle and power--and that’s what this is about.”

It’s also one of the best shows in town. The race between Duane and Abzug is the most fiercely contested and costly City Council campaign in the Big Apple this summer. Each side plans on raising $200,000 for the election, which is attracting some of the biggest names in gay and feminist circles, including author Larry Kramer, Gloria Steinem, Shirley MacLaine and Marlo Thomas.

More important, it has raised a host of troubling questions: Does divulging one’s HIV status help or hinder a politician? Does it matter when a gay or lesbian candidate comes out of the closet? And how should opponents react?

As he tests the waters following his announcement, Duane, 36, seems to be getting mixed signals. In a small city park, a woman comes up to him with tears in her eyes and says he has done a very courageous thing, embracing him before moving on. A few minutes later, another woman expresses sympathy but upbraids the candidate, saying: “This (Duane’s medical condition) is not the main issue facing Greenwich Village. Please remember that.”

The majority of voters in New York’s 3rd District are not gay or lesbian, and a large number of those considered most likely to vote are seniors. It is hard to predict how Duane’s disclosure will affect them, if at all. Still, given the likelihood of a low turnout, his campaign is betting on a disproportionately high number of gay voters to help carry the day.

Both candidates say the firestorms over their personal lives are secondary to the district’s overriding problems. Duane promises to preserve the area’s low-rise and affordable housing and expand the city program in which clean hypodermic needles are distributed to drug addicts to help stem the spread of AIDS.

Abzug backs programs to expand the police force, increase services to women with AIDS and help community groups reclaim local parks that have been overrun by addicts and the homeless.

Although no poll results have been made public, Duane is considered an early front-runner, based on his years of grass-roots activism in the district and his endorsement from influential gay and lesbian organizations.

But nobody is ruling out Liz Abzug. Her mother, Bella, used to represent the area in Congress and remains hugely popular with voters. Blunt, brassy and brimming with chutzpah, the Lady of a Thousand Hats is working hard to raise money and support for her daughter’s maiden campaign.

Duane and Abzug are Democrats, and because the district has a 7-1 Democratic registration edge, a win in September is tantamount to victory in the November general election. Schoolteacher Victor Del Mastro, the only other Democrat in the race, has announced that he is heterosexual. Little else is known about him.

Duane, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1989, is a New York native who studied urban affairs at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where he helped form a campus gay organization. After returning to the city, he quickly moved up the ladder of gay activism, becoming active in Chelsea and local district politics.

He has since worked as a stockbroker and a public relations consultant and most recently held a position on the staff of City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman. Duane’s candidacy was widely expected, but even some of his closest supporters were rocked by his revelation that he is HIV-positive.

“I’ve always been candid about everything in my life,” he says, sipping a cup of coffee in a Village diner. “And I felt that this was relevant. Why did I do it now? Because the campaign hasn’t even really started, and I wanted to get this part of it over with, although I know that it will be around, it will be mentioned.”

A quiet, soft-spoken man, Duane says he tested positive for the HIV virus three years ago but was not ready to reveal that until now. At the time of his 1989 race, he explains, he had not yet told his family or his friends. Since then, he has come to accept his medical condition more fully and also believes the political climate is more receptive for such a disclosure.

Nevertheless, Duane’s revelation has sparked controversy. Some critics call him hypocritical for criticizing the timing of Abzug’s decision, when he in fact had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” out of the closet to reveal his own health status, according to author Kramer, a nationally prominent gay activist who is backing Abzug.

Kramer charges that Duane’s HIV status was known to several community leaders well before he made his announcement. Fearful of the information leaking out, he says, the candidate only then revealed his medical condition.

“He didn’t make that statement voluntarily,” Kramer says. “That he should be getting all this publicity for his noble gesture makes me puke.”

Duane has refused to comment on such charges. Asked if his announcement was opportunistic, he looks a questioner dead in the eye and answers: “It’s an opportunity I’d rather not have.”

As she sits for an interview in her campaign headquarters, Abzug brushes off questions about Duane’s medical condition, saying it shouldn’t be an election issue. But that controversy--plus questions about her own political integrity--have been haunting the candidate night and day.

A feisty, outspoken woman of 39, Abzug says she was trained by her mother to fight for the underdog and take up the cudgels for a host of liberal causes. Born in New York, she went to Boston University, Hofstra Law School and has worked with several governmental agencies in the areas of human rights, women’s issues and domestic violence. She is on leave from her job as vice president of the state’s urban development corporation.

Supporters insist that Abzug is better qualified than Duane, but her announcement that she is a lesbian has drawn most of the attention so far. As the candidate sees it, her sexual orientation was nobody’s business until she decided to run.

Before the race, Abzug says, “I saw no need to hold a press conference to announce my sexuality, and I’ve been a lucky person. I’ve had very loving relationships and dynamic relationships all my life. But there’s no point in having to discuss that prior to this time.”

Not so, say a host of critics, including Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, New York’s first openly lesbian member of the state Legislature. Glick, who is backing Duane, charges that Abzug came out only for political reasons.

“Liz has not worked in the (gay and lesbian) community at large, and she certainly has not been supportive within the community,” she says. Abzug “has a name that is recognizable and could have attracted attention to problems, but she never used that on behalf of the community until now, and that upsets people.”

Glick also has tried to make an issue out of Bella Abzug’s activities. The former congresswoman arranged a fund-raiser for her daughter with MacLaine and has persuaded Steinem and other feminists to drum up support for Abzug among women voters. The candidate has been endorsed by the National Organization for Women, as well as Susan Brownmiller, Rita Mae Brown, Thomas, Shere Hite and Lily Tomlin.

Bella Abzug scoffs at the attacks on her daughter, dismissing them as “stupid and idiotic.” And she has no patience with criticism of her own actions, declaring: “She’s my daughter . Of course I want her to win. She’s ready for public service. . . . You don’t have to be told where the bathroom is if you have her experience.”

The charges fly back and forth, but some see only an upside in the bitter New York race. Dick Dadey, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, will ultimately profit from the experience.

“People will eventually realize that this is a happy problem for the community to have, to have a choice between a gay and a lesbian candidate,” he notes. “We should be happy there are people willing to run so openly, and simply be who they are.”