N.Y., Wisconsin in the Bag, Brown Says : Campaign: But the Democratic hopeful is stumping in Connecticut for anti-Clinton voters. His bold primary prediction could prove embarrassing.

By GEORGE SKELTON

March 24, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES SACRAMENTO BUREAU CHIEF

NEW HAVEN, Conn. —

Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. predicted Monday that he would win the New York and Wisconsin primaries on April 7. But he spent most of the day campaigning in Connecticut, where he attacked Bill Clinton and fought for the credibility of his candidacy.

Connecticut, which votes today, had been considered in Paul E. Tsongas’ corner until the former Massachusetts senator suspended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last week. That leaves the maverick Californian as the lone alternative to attract whatever anti-Clinton vote there is.

Brown interrupted his Connecticut campaigning during the afternoon to travel to New York City for an appearance on the Phil Donahue television show. When Donahue pointed out to Brown that he had won few states--only the Colorado primary and the Maine and Nevada caucuses--the former governor said without hesitation: “We’re going to start winning. We’re going to start winning in New York.”

Afterward, Brown told reporters he was “predicting Wisconsin as well.”

Brown is hoping to fare well with union members in New York and political reformers in Wisconsin--and with black voters in both states, although so far Clinton has been the clear favorite among blacks. But by flatly predicting victory, just off the top of his head, Brown may have set up a potential embarrassment if he is not able to pull off an upset in one of the two states.

Brown’s main message to Connecticut voters on election eve, as he traveled hundreds of miles through intermittent snowstorms in a small fleet of minivans, was that he should not be counted out of the race and that Clinton is “the official candidate of a corrupt status quo.”

Speaking to a few hundred Yale University students and local supporters in a snowstorm at an outdoor rally in New Haven, Brown said: “I view with alarm this effort to curtail the campaign before half the votes have been counted.”

And, although not predicting victory here, he acknowledged that today’s voting will be crucial to his candidacy. “He (Clinton) figures if he can stop me in Connecticut that will slow me down in New York,” said Brown, who reported spending $100,000 on television commercials in Connecticut, apparently far less than the front-runner. The 30-second ads themselves are a new tactic for Brown; in the past, his advertising primarily has consisted of radio ads and a 30-minute “infomercial” that he ran on cable stations.

Speaking to a few dozen City Hall workers and reporters in the office of Waterbury Mayor Edward Bergin, Brown said that “my expectations are rising” in Connecticut.

“People have a chance to validate the (congressional) check bouncing, the pay raises, exported jobs, or they have a chance to vote for change.”

And referring to the front-runner, whom he called at one point Monday “Slick Willie,” Brown said: “I can’t even keep up with all the scandals. . . . I do believe I’m more likely to be nominated by the Democratic Party than Bill Clinton.”

Brown picked up on the scandal theme later in New York when an Associated Press reporter asked for his reaction to a Los Angeles Times story that Clinton personally had lobbied to award a multimillion-dollar state bond contract that benefited a wealthy political backer publicly known to be the target of a cocaine investigation. “I just can’t keep up with all these stories on Clinton,” Brown said. “We don’t have resources necessary to sort through all the material.

“In environmental law, they call it ‘accumulative impact.’ That’s what we’re witnessing now.”

And on a morning rush-hour radio talk show, Brown said that if the Arkansas governor is nominated, “when (President) Bush takes that Clinton baloney and runs it through his grinder, there’s not going to be much left.”

Later Brown belittled Clinton’s resume as Arkansas chief of state and asserted that “governing California is a qualifying experience for President. . . . We need someone from the major leagues and not the bush leagues representing our party in the fall.”

Brown insisted that his attacks on Clinton were not personal--just an expression of differences over policy.

“This man is the greatest bluffer I’ve seen in American politics in my lifetime,” he said. Asked to elaborate, Brown said: “He’s acting like he’s just some big huff-and-puff presidential campaign, and he’s bankrupt.”

Connecticut Primary

Polling hours: 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST.

Closed primaries.

Independents and members of minority parties can’t vote.

1990 Population: 3,287,116

White: 87%

Black: 8.3%

Latino origin: 6.5%

Asian: 2%

Registered voters: 1,700,871

Democrats: 667,523 (39%)

Republicans: 461,372 (27%)