Mrs. Clinton Tries to Go Native in N.Y.

In New York, as Hillary Rodham Clinton is learning, baseball is the continuation of politics by other means. Asked at one of her “listening tour” events last week in Queens whether she’d back the Yankees or Mets in a hypothetical World Series matchup, the first lady chuckled and said: “There are some questions that even I am not dumb enough to answer.”

It was a slow, fat pitch, but Mrs. Clinton’s smoothly evasive response showed that she may be learning from her political errors. As she barnstorms up and down the state in her exploratory campaign for the U.S. Senate, the first lady has been working hard to convince New Yorkers that she is really one of them--and not an arrogant carpetbagger.

“I was just in Batavia [in upstate New York], talking to people in a coffee shop,” Mrs. Clinton told the Flushing audience. “And I’ve heard people talk [about housing] in Buffalo, Brooklyn and Long Island,” she added, beefing up her comments with local statistics.

Hillary Clinton wants to go native, but it’s not easy. On the plus side, she’s pulled even in the polls with her probable rival, Republican New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and she impresses many people in the forums she’s been holding. This week, her press secretary confirmed that Mrs. Clinton is looking for a house in affluent Westchester County, further cementing the idea that she is putting down roots.

But for all the publicity she gets, her gaffes draw the most attention. For example, the memory of the first lady claiming to be a longtime Yankee fan on the “Today” show still rankles with skeptical New Yorkers, who bristle at any sign of phoniness. And her job just got tougher, with the announcement that Republicans--galvanized by the prospect of her candidacy--have avoided a fratricidal primary fight.

Indeed, for some critics the mere sight of Hillary Clinton campaigning conjures up images of a celebrity posing as a candidate, of an interloper trying to pass as a home girl. And even admirers express growing concern that her New York make-over needs work. They worry that Mrs. Clinton’s buttoned-down style may baffle people here, who equate politics with street fighting and thrive on straight talk.

“At some point, we need a little less Eleanor Roosevelt and a lot more Bella Abzug,” said veteran political consultant Norman Adler, recalling the feisty New York congresswoman who never minced words. “I think the first lady needs to get her hands dirty.”

And more accessible. Typically, Mrs. Clinton jets in and out of New York for several days at a time, staying either at private, undisclosed residences or at tony hotels.

“If I were her campaign manager, I’d tell her to move to the state immediately, because she hasn’t spent enough time here for people to believe she really is a New Yorker who cares about them,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a consultant who helped run President Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign in the state.

“She also has a problem understanding the place, I think, because New York, unlike most other regions, is driven by ethnic politics,” he added. “Italian Catholic voters will be just as important to this race as Jewish voters, for example, but does she know that?”

The grumblings fill the airwaves and newspapers. Yet none appears to have hurt Hillary Clinton, who has erased an 8-percentage-point Giuliani lead in the polls. In the most recent Zogby survey, she held a big lead among women, while Giuliani beat her among men. The dead heat confounded some opinion-makers, who assumed she would be politically damaged by her widely publicized comments in Talk magazine about President Clinton’s sexual infidelities.

“I’m mystified,” said pollster John Zogby, noting that many pundits found the interview “revolting.”

“But the only revolt seems to be amongst the public against the pundits,” Zogby said.

Neither Clinton nor Giuliani has technically announced a candidacy for the seat being vacated by Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The election is more than 15 months away, and this week an irritated Giuliani said that intense media coverage and nonstop campaigning will inevitably turn off voters. But Clinton has a mission, and will stick to her “listening” strategy through the fall.

This is bad news for reporters, because she is shunning regular news conferences. Her overall goal is simple, aides say: By listening to voters in carefully planned forums, the first lady will show New Yorkers she understands local problems and has not simply dropped out of the clouds seeking votes.

The results have been mixed. Several weeks ago, Clinton waded into the minefield of New York religious politics, announcing that she supports Jerusalem as Israel’s “eternal” capital. It was a radical break with administration policy, and critics wondered how she could say this and also have called earlier for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland. The net result: Headlines accusing her of pandering to Jews.

Another mini-flap erupted when The Forward, a Jewish weekly, revealed that the first lady has distant Jewish relatives. Although the Clinton camp denied planting the story to impress Jewish voters, the media had a field day. “Oy Vey!” smirked the New York Post’s front page, “Hillary’s Almost Jewish.”

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s foes continue to portray her as an Illinois-born, Arkansas traveler on a summer tour of New York. And she has given them good material: On a surprise visit to Long Island’s Jones Beach, she sounded like a tourist when she said, “I feel like I’m on ‘Baywatch’!” Another time, she mistakenly claimed to have visited Elmira, an upstate town, as an adult (the visit, she later explained, was on a childhood auto trip 40 years ago).

“We don’t need someone from Arkansas or Illinois coming in and trying to learn about our state,” said Gov. George Pataki, ridiculing her “cockamamie” campaign.

Under federal law, Mrs. Clinton only has to establish New York residency to run for its U.S. Senate seat. Being outsiders didn’t hurt Robert F. Kennedy in 1964 and James Buckley in 1970, who both fought off the carpetbagger charge and went on to win Senate elections.

For Mrs. Clinton the issue may soon be put to rest, once she concludes her house-hunting in the suburbs just north of New York City. “Only 14 miles from Clinton’s favorite team at Yankee Stadium,” cracked the New York Daily News.

Details of the home search have dribbled out in recent months. Thursday’s buzz focused on a $1.7-million, 12-room home in the hamlet of Edgemont. Residents, however, were skeptical that the Clintons--or the Secret Service--would approve, because the driveway is on a crowded street. Meanwhile, real estate agents speculate on what the first couple can afford, and pundits sniff that, wherever they land, they will seem out of place.

The sniping is relentless, but it’s a different story on the campaign trail. Many New Yorkers who have attended Mrs. Clinton’s listening sessions are struck by her understanding of complex state issues and her willingness to take suggestions.

“I am very impressed she’s here,” said Kathleen Cummings, a schoolteacher at the Queens meeting, which focused on women who balance work and family. “She has a lot to say, and you generally don’t hear politicians talking about these issues in such detail.”

Cummings’ friend Margaret Seales was also taken with the candidate’s knowledge of local problems. But then she raised the carpetbagger issue, noting: “When people want to be civil servants, they have to meet some kind of residency requirement, don’t they? I’m concerned because she isn’t from here.”

Hillary Clinton also has to worry about a united GOP front after Pataki grudgingly endorsed Giuliani’s Senate bid, under pressure from national Republican leaders. While the governor dislikes the mayor, he persuaded Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio to avoid a bloody primary fight against Giuliani.

If she was rattled by the rapprochement, however, the first lady didn’t show it. Asked by reporters whether the Pataki endorsement bothers her, Mrs. Clinton smiled and insisted she ignores what “the other party” does.

“I’m here to listen,” she said. Seconds later, the brief question-and-answer session ended, and she plunged into a crowd of well-wishers. Sidney Zucker, 83, who drove a cab in New York for 35 years and knows something about battling, was visibly impressed.

“She’s smart,” he said. “I hope she’s a fighter.”