Cuomo Backers in Big N.H. Mailing

Leaders of a group hoping to draft Mario M. Cuomo for President said Monday they had mailed postcards backing their cause to every Democratic household in New Hampshire.

The cards tout the New York governor as the only Democrat capable of beating President Bush and illustrate how to cast a write-in vote.

“We hope to make this job easier,” said Don Rose, political director of the National Draft Cuomo for President Committee. He said the paper ballots used by 65% of New Hampshire’s voters help the campaign because they “virtually invite a write-in.”

Rose said 72,000 households containing New Hampshire’s 96,000 registered Democrats will receive the cards, at a cost of $18,000.

“Following this mailing we’re on a hand-to-mouth budget,” said Phil Krone, the campaign’s chairman.

Krone said the campaign, which expects to spend a little less than $50,000 leading up to the state’s Feb. 18 primary, also hopes to have television ads running soon.

Cuomo announced in December he would not join the race. He was asked about the draft movement on Monday in Albany, N.Y., and replied: “We’re not going to encourage anybody to do anything.”

“It’s very difficult to discourage people who are saying nice things to you,” Cuomo said. “You try not to be ungracious. But the record is, in modern times with this primary process, it comes out of the primaries. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it will be.”