Democrats Meet Amid Rising Hopes : Convention: Delegates are buoyed by polls, response to Gore. But Clinton faces challenge in attempt to broaden party appeal without alienating blacks, liberals.

The Democrats, buoyed by improving news in opinion polls and an overwhelmingly positive response to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s selection of Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. to be his running mate, will open their 1992 convention here today on a rare note of optimism.

After months of dispiriting setbacks for Clinton, party activists gathering here Sunday talked enthusiastically about the public’s response to Gore, as well as polls that show Clinton getting dramatically improved favorable ratings. The man Democrats will nominate as their presidential standard-bearer on Wednesday is now locked in a dead heat with President Bush and independent Ross Perot.

“The ticket’s been even better received than I had expected,” said Warren Christopher, the Los Angeles attorney who headed Clinton’s search for a vice presidential candidate. “And the chemistry between Clinton and Gore is better than anyone expected. I’ve watched them up close. They’re both well prepared, hard workers and they both want to be on top.”

And Gov. Ann Richards of Texas, the convention chairwoman, declared in a CBS television interview, “We’re going to change this lousy government that can’t respond to the people.”

Whether the Democrats’ rising spirits will translate into political success remains highly problematic, however. Clinton’s centrist strategy is essentially a high-wire effort to broaden the party’s appeal among white voters without alienating the blacks and liberals who now constitute the core of Democratic support.

And there was fresh evidence Sunday of how difficult that may be to accomplish.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson took a half-step back from his Saturday endorsement of Clinton to complain about what he called the Arkansas governor’s “push-off” strategy, and New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo--during an emotion-charged rally for Jackson at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater--joined in the warnings against slighting traditional constituencies.

Offering a sympathetic translation of Jackson’s complaints, Cuomo declared: “I don’t want addition by subtraction. . . . I don’t want multiplication by division.”

Cuomo’s remarks served as just one indication of the continuing unease felt by the party’s liberal wing, and longtime Jackson supporters who took the podium sounded an even angrier warning against politics by exclusion.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) bluntly labeled the Apollo rally “Don’t Mess With Jesse Night.” And as the crowd of African-American officials, delegates and others shouted its approval, Waters issued a defiant challenge to the Democratic ticket.

“Don’t think you can play games with us,” she said. “Don’t you dare try to trick us. You can’t get away with that. You can’t go around us.”

Waters is a public supporter of Clinton, and her gesture of “solidarity” with Jackson--and the dissident tone of the afternoon-long tribute to the civil rights leader--may have been motivated more by nostalgia than by any overt hostility to this year’s Democratic nominee.

But the gathering nevertheless opened a window on the bitterness of Democrats who have not felt included in the Clinton campaign thus far. Frank Watkins, a senior Jackson adviser, said the degree of Jackson’s commitment to the ticket would depend on whether the nominee adopted “a more inclusive strategy and a broader vision than is currently in place.”

And Jackson used his own address to the cheering crowd to reject suggestions that he is guilty of political troublemaking. He belongs to a “tradition of conscience,” he said. “On the floor fighting for justice is no badge of disloyalty to the ticket. It is to make the ticket better.”

Clinton talked by telephone Sunday with both Jackson and with former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., who continues to press his case against the Arkansas governor’s moderate policies.

And while both continued to keep their distance, Clinton, who attended interfaith services at the Calvary Baptist Church on West 57th Street here Sunday, told reporters, “I think we’re coming close to a unified convention.”

Similarly, Democratic National chairman Ronald H. Brown declared, “This is the most unified the Democratic Party has been in decades,” and he insisted the choice of Gore as a running mate will help the Democrats compete in every region of the country.

Texas Gov. Richards predicted that in the end, Jackson will come aboard and work to register new black voters because he, “just as the rest of us, firmly believes that unless we have some change in this country, we are not economically going to be able to compete in this international market.”

There was some independent support for the Democrats’ surge of hope. While negative perceptions of Clinton remain widespread in the electorate and the Democratic Party as a whole has a lackluster image, it is still better liked than the Republican Party, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll.

The survey, conducted July 7-9, found just over 2 in 5 (42%) registered voters view the Democratic Party favorably. That is only slightly more than the 37% who judge it negatively, but still noticeably better than voters’ view of the Republicans. Thirty-six percent of voters say they like the GOP, but just over half (52%) dislike it.

Jackson, whose full support is considered by many analysts to be crucial to turning out a heavy black vote for Clinton in November, did finally offer a lukewarm endorsement on his CNN talk show Saturday night, saying that considering the alternatives, he had decided to vote for Clinton. But he said Sunday it has “not yet been determined” whether he would campaign for Clinton.

Jerry Brown told reporters he was not ready to endorse Clinton. “We have a process here,” he said, referring to the convention. “This was not meant to be a coronation.”

Clinton, who will be nominated Wednesday, has sought the support of both Jackson and Brown, but has made it clear he will not offer Jackson the kinds of concessions that Michael S. Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee, made to win his campaign efforts.

The issue of Jackson and the Clinton campaign dominated pre-convention talk at parties here.

“Clinton can’t afford to fawn on him the way Dukakis did,” said one Clinton campaign adviser. “There will be an accommodation of some kind with him, but he won’t get an airplane to campaign in and won’t have an unlimited campaign budget.”

Democratic activists here generally applauded the way Clinton has distanced himself from Jackson and some see the civil rights leader’s influence in the party diminishing if he fails to support Clinton fully or insists on the kind of demands he made of Dukakis in 1988 and of Walter F. Mondale, the 1984 nominee.

Tim Hagen, a longtime Democratic leader in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes the traditional Democratic stronghold of Cleveland, said Jackson “is getting to be irrelevant. He can’t go through his same song and dance all the time and keep his credibility. Clinton has handled him just right.”

However, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), one of only a few blacks among hundreds of Democrats who turned out for a convention party honoring Robert Strauss, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, said Jackson “can energize the black vote, and if not Jesse Jackson, then who?”

Rangel noted that Clinton has few blacks in his campaign hierarchy and said he “ought to be secure enough to see that we won’t hurt him.”

Blacks probably will wind up supporting the nominee, Rangel said, but Clinton “needs to send some signals to blacks, maybe a ‘We Shall Overcome’ kind of speech. That’s what turned me around on President (Lyndon B.) Johnson.”

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, taking note of the many negative news accounts during the primaries of Clinton’s personal and professional conduct, urged Rangel to refrain from criticizing Clinton on the race issue. “Clinton needs a breather,” Lautenberg said. “He’s taken some hard hits. He’s been through three or four earthquakes with a 9 rating on the Richter scale. Give him a break.”

The party for Strauss, a former Democratic chairman, drew many senators, congressmen and other officials to a spacious meeting room at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He used the occasion to lobby Democratic House members to support President Bush’s aid-to-Russia bill.

Smiling broadly, Strauss told a reporter, “I firmed up six votes and changed two others. That’s not bad.” He said will spend 10 more days lobbying in Washington and predicted the House will approve the bill before its August recess.

On the eve of the convention, Clinton spent much of the day in his 14th-floor suite at the Inter-Continental Hotel. He and Jerry Brown spoke by telephone Sunday morning, but neither really had sought the conversation.

The talk was triggered by a crank telephone call Saturday night, according to Brown’s campaign manager, Jodie Evans. She said someone purporting to be Brown telephoned Clinton and when the governor picked up the phone, the line went dead.

Worried that he had accidentally disconnected Brown, Clinton called him back. Brown was not around, but a Brown aide later called back to let the Arkansas governor know where the Californian would be on Sunday morning--at author Joan Didion’s house.

Clinton called again and Brown later said they had “a very good conversation.” He said he read Clinton his “humility agenda”--which includes rolling back congressional pay raises and imposing federal term limits--and talked about his own “we the people” platform.

Although Clinton’s forces have not scheduled a time for Brown to address the convention, aides said he will use the time allotted him Wednesday night for placing his name in nomination to address the delegates.

Gore, meanwhile, appeared on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” and clarified his stance on abortion rights. Gore has opposed federal funding for abortions, but he said Sunday that a national health care plan should include the procedure.

“When we have a national health insurance plan for this country, I think that creates an entirely different set of circumstances,” he said.

In another sign that Clinton’s candidacy has gained new respect and momentum, the Republican attack machine that has been pounding away at Ross Perot with damaging effect has moved its headquarters to New York and targeted Clinton.

Republican National Chairman Rich Bond led the assault. He denounced Clinton as “the failed governor of a small state.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers George Skelton, David Lauter and Robert Shogan, and Times Poll Director John Brennan.

* MORE STORIES AND PHOTOS: A6-12, E1, F1

Today’s Schedule

Here are today’s main events at the Democratic convention: --Call to order

--Welcoming remarks

--Remarks by New York Mayor David N. Dinkins

--Remarks by Convention Chairwoman Ann Richards, governor of Texas

--Speeches by U.S. Senate candidates Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Barbara Boxer of California, Jean Jones of Iowa, Lynn Yeakel of Pennsylvania and Dianne Feinstein of California

--Remarks by National Democratic Party Chairman Ronald H. Brown

--Keynote addresses: Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller and former Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas

TV AND RADIO COVERAGE

All times Pacific Daylight.

C-SPAN: 2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

CNN: 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

PBS: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

CBS, ABC: 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

NBC: 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

KCRW-FM (89.9): In cooperation with National Public Radio, plans extensive live coverage throughout the day.

Source: Democratic National Committee