POLITICAL BRIEFING

ROCKY START: The last-minute primary challenge that Laurence Rockefeller--nephew of the late Nelson A. Rockefeller--mounted against New York Republican Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato may not even make it onto the ballot. Rockefeller filed only 10,744 signatures to qualify for the Sept. 15 primary--just 744 more than required. . . . A D’Amato aide said his campaign plans to carefully examine the signatures. “We will have more people looking at their petitions than he had signing them,” the aide said.