Mario's Moves

The well-dressed crowd of 700, representing much of California's Democratic establishment, waited expectantly after a sellout dinner in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. At the front tables were such glitterati as Actress Jane Fonda and her husband Assemblyman Tom Hayden, former California Governor Pat Brown and Film Producer Irwin Winkler. But as New York Governor Mario Cuomo prepared to deliver his speech, an oyster shucker working nearby was puzzled by all the hoopla. "What's the deal?" he asked. "Is he running for something?"

The question has dogged Cuomo for months, and in Los Angeles he again deflected it with his usual response: "The big question you have to decide is whether you ought to be President." But the role of Hamlet does not suit him | well. Within the next week or so Cuomo is expected to declare his intentions, and political pros expect him to take the first tentative steps toward running.

For the past year Cuomo has stuck close to home, exciting speculation even as he shied from the fray. But this Monday he goes to New Orleans and next week to Florida, and he plans further appearances this spring in New Hampshire and Iowa. He has met privately with top national strategists, among them Bob Shrum, Ted Kennedy's former word wizard, and Gerald Rafshoon, Jimmy Carter's media adviser.

Although his rhetoric can inspire, Cuomo must now show that his message can sell. His vague vision of the nation-as-strikes some as mushy old liberalism. Notoriously thin-skinned and confrontational with critics, he will have to learn to endure the endless fleabites that come from relentless questioning on the campaign trail. But unlike other potential candidates, Cuomo does not need to scrounge for attention; he is sure to draw crowds, and reporters will trail him like stardust wherever he goes. He has a $4.5 million war chest left over from his landslide re-election and an aura that will quickly put him on a par with Gary Hart as a Democratic front runner.

They will have plenty of company. Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt will formally announce next week, and former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt will do so in early March. Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who has been collecting consultants and giving rousing speeches, said last Friday that he definitely plans to run, and Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, who has been urged on by moderates, plans to decide by the end of the month.