‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : Brown to Keep Lists, Be ‘Voice for Voiceless’ : Future: The Californian withholds a direct endorsement of Clinton and ducks question about another race in 1996.

Even as he was finishing the last act in his role as 1992 presidential candidate, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. was talking about the next part he will play in his unconventional theater of politics.

The former California governor said that he wants to keep active his famous 800-number and his prized mailing list of nearly 180,000 contributors, perhaps do a television talk show as well as some writing. And he hopes to be a “voice for the voiceless,” including people in South Los Angeles trying to rebuild their riot-devastated community.

There also are wistful thoughts among some loyalists of another presidential candidacy in 1996. “I still believe that he will be President. He will be. It’s a definition of timing,” said Jacques Barzaghi, Brown’s longtime aide de camp. “People already are wearing buttons, ‘Jerry Brown in ’96.’ ”

When the 54-year-old Brown was asked at a press conference Thursday whether he intends to launch another presidential bid--his fourth--in 1996, a loud cheer went up from his supporters. He did not answer directly and probably will not be able to do so for a couple of years.

“Tonight’s Bill Clinton’s night,” Brown said. “He’s won, fair and square, and I don’t want to in any way interfere with it.”

But Brown continued to withhold a direct endorsement of the Democratic nominee. “Between now and Labor Day--and Labor Day and the (November) election--we have a lot of time,” he said. “I intend to do my share, but I don’t think the program has ended yet.”

What program? “The whole process,” he responded. “The campaign is just beginning. I think there’s an undue haste to arrive at these conclusions. . . . I’ve never encountered so much pressure for conformity in all the time I’ve been in politics.”

And what are his plans after November? “I’ve got a few ideas,” he told reporters, without revealing any.

But as Brown’s more conventional sister, California state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, observed to The Times: “Jerry rarely knows what he’s going to do tomorrow, let alone after November. . . . Jerry has to decide who he wants to be and what he wants to do and let his people know.”

To some who have known him for years, Brown seems to have found a comfortable niche that meshes his initially chosen life as a cleric--he spent three early years in a Jesuit seminary--with his inherited calling for politics. Operating with a very small staff, but hundreds of volunteer disciples, Brown wants to continue preaching the gospel of political reform and economic justice, among other causes.

“I’ll be speaking and writing,” he told The Times. “I’ll be all over the place, trying to figure out a way to give more focus to local problems. I feel that’s a good use of my time. Many people say nobody’s listening to them. There’s something missing in the system. We’re trying to build a new party organization.”

Brown told about 300 supporters at a seminar on grass-roots organizing Tuesday to “start thinking about your own communities. Get something going. Where I can, I’ll come there and give encouragement.”

Barzaghi said that he, Brown and campaign manager Jodie Evans plan to “regroup” in California soon after the convention and “focus on L.A.”

The way Barzaghi enigmatically explained it, the official Rebuild L.A. effort led by Peter V. Ueberroth “is doing it from the top down, and we’re going to try to work up and meet somewhere in between. We’ve already met with Crips and Bloods.”

Asked to amplify on Brown’s involvement with these street gangs, Barzaghi said: “He’ll try to make them keep the truce and be a speaker for them. They want Jerry to kind of be their leader.”

State Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a veteran organizer for many causes, predicted that Brown will have a hard time keeping his organization together and building on it.

“It will take a lot of leadership, a lot of staff and a lot of money,” noted Hayden, pointing out that Brown is a far better preacher than organizer. “I’ve told him that the morning after (the convention), it gets really tough to build a sustained movement without a specific goal, such as ‘getting Jerry to the convention.’ ”

In interviews at the convention, many party leaders said that Brown has to stick with one theme for awhile--such as political reform--to gain credibility with it.

“He has had many incarnations,” noted veteran Los Angeles political activist Barbara Johnson.

Brown acknowledged this, saying that if he had it to do over again, he never would have become state party chairman in 1989. He raised millions of dollars from special interests in that job, he noted, and “it undermined the credibility of my reform message. I learned a lot about the corruptness of the system, but I should have been out organizing coalitions to run for President.”

Brown has flatly rejected the notion of leading a third-party movement, asserting that he will continue to “fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.”

But some Californians at the convention agreed with Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), a foe of many of Brown’s reform ideas, who asserted that “Jerry’s had his last hurrah” and should “let Kathleen take the stage.”

Still, more seemed to subscribe to the view of John Emerson, Clinton’s California campaign manager. Brown, he said, “has always been a visionary for our party, and I assume he’ll continue in that role.”