‘92 POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE : A Family Feud Comes to a Close--at Ballot Box : N.Y. Senate primary today ends Democratic fight over Ferraro. But GOP could benefit.

When the political season opened this year, Democrats in this heavily Democratic state were rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of going against Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato, a two-term Republican whom his foes delight in referring to as “Sen. Sleaze.”

Battered by repeated charges of ethical improprieties and suffering from some of his lowest approval ratings ever in the polls, D’Amato never looked more susceptible to a Democratic challenge. Indeed, as one Democratic official put it: “If there is a first tier of vulnerable Republican incumbents . . . Alfonse D’Amato heads the list.”

But the scramble among four Democrats for the chance to run against D’Amato--culminating in a primary today--turned into a bruising, no-holds-barred fight in which questions about the Republican’s character took a back seat. Instead, the Democratic battle became centered on allegations that the front-runner, former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, has uncomfortably close business and political ties with organized crime figures.

And in the end, many political observers say, the biggest beneficiary of the fierce internecine rivalry could turn out to be D’Amato himself.

“The best thing D’Amato has going for him is a family feud among Democrats that leaves the winner without any money and without a united party,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

The allegations concerning Ferraro, many of them a rehash of charges that haunted her during the 1984 presidential race, appeared late last month in the Village Voice and New York Newsday. They quickly became campaign fodder for Ferraro’s opponents.

The story in the weekly Village Voice, which ran under the headline “Gerry and the Mob,” detailed a string of alleged links between the mob and Ferraro and her husband, John A. Zaccaro. It included an account of how mob members and associates purportedly helped finance Ferraro’s first run for Congress in 1978.

The Newsday story focused on the renting of a building half-owned by Ferraro’s husband to a child pornography distributor with mob links. Ferraro pledged during her 1984 vice presidential campaign to evict the distributor by January, 1985, but he managed to stay as a tenant until 1988, paying a total of $340,000 in rent over the three-year period.

Ferraro’s two leading foes for the Senate nomination--state Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams and New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman--instantly sought to capitalize on the allegations in the published reports. Each launched a barrage of negative publicity raising questions about whose ethics were worse, D’Amato’s or Ferraro’s.

“There’s no question that ethics will be the central issue against Al D’Amato,” said Holtzman, a former four-term congresswoman who nearly beat D’Amato as the Democratic Senate candidate in 1980. “(Ferraro) will be a stronger candidate if she answers the questions now.”

Abrams, little known outside New York but a popular political figure within the state, accused Ferraro of having so many “unsavory associations” that D’Amato “is salivating at the prospect” of facing her in November.

Whatever the outcome of today’s primary, Abrams will be on the general election ballot as the Liberal Party candidate, meaning he likely will siphon off votes from any other Democrat in the contest with D’Amato.

The only Democratic contender to defend Ferraro was the Rev. Al Sharpton, a nationally prominent black activist who also has been the target of recent published allegations linking him with organized crime.

“Last week, I was the mobster,” Sharpton said after the Village Voice and Newsday articles on Ferraro appeared. “This week, she’s the mobster. If there’s nothing criminal here, all we have is gossip.”

Ferraro, meanwhile, lost no time in firing back, charging Holtzman and Abrams with engaging in a vicious attempt to distort the truth and smear her character. “Every dollar I ever earned was honest,” Ferraro maintained. “If I were not Italian-American, this whole thing would never have been brought up.”

To aid in her defense, Ferraro hired a respected former federal judge to review her financial affairs. His report, for which the Ferraro campaign paid $95,000, exonerated her of any mob connections, but it did not involve an investigation of her husband’s business dealings.

The Holtzman camp promptly branded the study a “$95,000 whitewash.”

Perhaps the most controver s ial move in the assault on Ferraro was Holtzman’s release of a blistering 30-second commercial suggesting Ferraro might have something to hide in the child pornographer case.

The ad, which billed itself as a “preview of a commercial Al D’Amato could run against Gerry Ferraro in November,” concluded with the narrator saying: “Come on, Gerry. Come clean. Now. Before it’s too late.”

Ferraro immediately countered with an ad comparing the criticism of her to the attacks made against law professor Anita Faye Hill at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

“Just a year ago,” the narrator’s voice says, “a woman with courage faced lies, innuendo and smears. Now another woman whose life has been a fight for change is being smeared. Geraldine Ferraro is being attacked by Al D’Amato, Bob Abrams and even Liz Holtzman.”

Holtzman’s ad also prompted a shower of criticism from feminists--many of them Ferraro supporters--who saw the commercial as an unsisterly act in what is being called the “Year of the Woman” in politics.

David Garth, a nationally known New York-based political consultant, said that while Holtzman’s anti-Ferraro spots managed to put Holtzman’s name on the front page, they are unlikely to help her win the nomination. “I think they will help Abrams more in the primary and help D’Amato in the long run,” he added.

When not defending herself against allegations of mob ties, Ferraro has positioned herself as the moderate in the race. She supports the death penalty, for example, while the other three all oppose it. She also backs a national health insurance plan that would be financed by employers, while the others all call for one that would be government-administered.

Abrams, citing his crusades as attorney general to protect abortion rights and combat sex discrimination, has claimed to be the “real feminist” in the race. Retorted Ferraro: “How does any man . . . do that when he’s running against both me and Liz?”

D’Amato, meanwhile, has been on a relentless pursuit to drive up his approval ratings. A shrewd, scrappy political adversary who prides himself on his constituent services--he sees himself as “Sen. Pothole,” not “Sen. Sleaze”--he has been tearing around the state with news of some new federal largess he has helped procure for New York.

D’Amato has been the target of a series of allegations that eroded his standing in the polls. The Senate Ethics Committee, after a lengthy investigation last year, found insufficient evidence to pursue allegations that he had improperly aided campaign contributors, friends and relatives.

But the committee criticized him for allowing his brother to use his Senate offices for lobbying work on behalf of a Long Island defense contractor.

D’Amato escaped a primary challenge when his one announced challenger, a member of the state’s prestigious Rockefeller family, failed to get enough valid signatures on qualifying petitions.

New York’s Final Four

Here are profiles of the four Democratic candidates who are vying to challenge two-term Republican Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato in New York: ROBERT ABRAMS

Birth: July 4, 1938, in New York City.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1960; law degree from New York University in 1963.

Career highlights: Former New York assemblyman. Elected Bronx borough president in 1969, the youngest borough president in New York City history. Elected state attorney general in 1978, the first Democrat to win that office in 40 years. Has been reelected to that office three times.

Family: Married, two children.

GERALDINE A. FERRARO

Birth: Aug. 26, 1935, in Newburgh, N.Y.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Marymount College in 1956; law degree from Fordham University in 1960.

Career highlights: Private law practice, 1961-1974. Joined Queens district attorney’s office in 1974 as assistant district attorney. Elected to Congress in 1978, served until 1984. Walter F. Mondale’s running mate on Democratic ticket in 1984, the first woman ever nominated for vice president by a major party.

Family: Married, three children.

ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN

Birth: Aug. 11, 1941, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1962; law degree from Harvard Law School in 1965.

Career highlights: Youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she won first House term in 1972; served until 1980. Unsuccessful Senate candidate in 1980. Elected Brooklyn district attorney in 1981, served until 1989. Elected to her current post, New York City comptroller, in 1989.

Family: Single.

AL SHARPTON

Birth: Oct. 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Education: Attended Brooklyn College, no degree.

Career highlights: Ordained as a Pentecostal minister at the age of 10. In 1971, founded the National Youth Movement to help urban ghetto youngsters. In 1991, founded the National Action Network to fight racial oppression and injustice.

Family: Married, two children.