A New Ball Game

By MARGARET CARLSON WASHINGTON

Pity the White Male Candidate. For nearly two centuries WMCs had politics all to themselves. But this year, facing a record number of female and black opponents, they are finding that the negative ads and hardball rhetoric that worked so well when one WMC squared off against another are less effective when the target is a woman or a black.

With 77 women running for Governor or the Congress, WMCs might be forgiven for wondering why a woman can't be more like a man. Treating a woman like a lady -- or even worse, a girl -- can seem condescending and patronizing. But being too rough also has its perils. Humor has to watch its step. A joke the slightest bit off-key can come across as a sexist put-down. When anything a candidate says can be used against him, even metaphors must be sexually correct. Warns Republican political consultant Eddie Mahe: "A sports reference like 'three yards and a cloud of dust' can get you in trouble if you are running against a woman."

A similar etiquette goes into effect when a WMC runs against a black. This year Doug Wilder wannabes joined the races for Governor of Georgia (Andrew Young lost the Democratic primary) and South Carolina, and in North Carolina former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt is trying to deny Jesse Helms a third term in the U.S. Senate. For WMCs in such contests, references to black marks on their opponents' records are clearly out of bounds, as are allusions to crime and welfare dependency, which might have racist overtones. Blacks are freer to flirt with racial rhetoric. In the primary battle between black former Federal Judge Alcee Hastings and ex-Ku Klux Klan leader John Paul Rogers to be Florida's secretary of state, Hastings got a laugh last month by quipping, "If ((Rogers)) doesn't burn crosses in my neighborhood, I won't spit watermelon seeds in his." If Rogers had made the vow in reverse, he would have been accused of bigotry.

So what are WMCs supposed to do? They are trying a variety of tactics with varying degrees of success.

The Barbie-Doll Treatment. This strategy -- painting a female foe as simply too sweet for the job -- is being tested by WMCs in several states. In Colorado Republican Senate hopeful Hank Brown dismissed Democrat Josie Heath's written demand that he put in escrow $605,000 raised for his campaign at a luncheon chaired by a Denver developer with the comment, "It's a cute letter, but without substance." Heath snapped back that Brown's remarks were "incredibly patronizing. Modern men and women in this country today are well past using language like 'cute' with a woman's serious request on a matter of grave importance."

The most frenzied version of this technique is taking place in California. Just after Dianne Feinstein won the Democratic nomination for Governor last June, her G.O.P. challenger, Senator Pete Wilson, tried to show that behind those severely tailored suits and 10 successful years as mayor of San Francisco was just another softhearted female. He broadcast a television commercial showcasing a letter from Feinstein that concluded with the handwritten postscript "You're wonderful." She quickly rejoined with a Ken- doll put-down: "I guess men like to be called wonderful . . . I'm glad he treasures it and keeps it." Wilson then blasted Feinstein for taking a vacation and challenged her to debate him. Feinstein fired back, "Please have your campaign director contact my campaign director." And she stayed at the beach. Recent polls show they are locked in a dead heat.

Piltdown Put-Down. This strategy was pioneered in 1984 by Vice President Bush when he boasted that he had "tried to kick a little ass" in his televised debate with Geraldine Ferraro. Similarly, Republican Clayton Williams, running against state treasurer Ann Richards in the battle for Governor of Texas, seems to be less worried about being too insensitive than about not being insensitive enough. For that great swath of good ole boys caught like him in a mid-life culture shift, Williams has vowed to bring back the days when a man was a man and a woman knew that her place was not at the top of the Democratic ticket. He started by asserting that he would be "uncomfortable" running against a woman on the grounds that "maybe she's meaner and tougher, I don't know." Then, at a cattle roundup at his West Texas ranch last March, he allowed that bad weather was like rape: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it." Next he proclaimed that when he was growing up, being serviced by prostitutes was part of a healthy male's coming of age. Soon his aides were chiming in. One remarked that Richards had "danced around the issue ((of flag burning)) so much, her position ought to be 'read my hips.' " Then two Christian activists with financial ties to Williams labeled Richards "an honorary lesbian" for supporting gay rights. After Richards charged that Williams was using surrogates to attack her and "hiding behind skirts," his reply went about as far as a candidate can go in a family campaign: "By the time this election is over with, that person will have all of me she wants."

Despite, or because of, his so-called gaffes, Williams remains well ahead in the polls, 47% to 37%, with 57% of men to Richard's 28%. Richard Shingles, a scholar at Virginia Polytechnic Institute who is doing a study on gender and - race in politics, explains that in Texas "it takes more for a man to be perceived as a bully than it takes for a woman to be perceived as a bitch."

Black Attack. Being overtly antiblack is even more out of style than being antifemale. Although Jesse Helms' success is due partly to opposing civil rights legislation, these days he must find a way to keep white voters focused on Gantt's complexion while seeming to be above appeals to prejudice. That's where James Meredith comes in.

Since becoming the first black to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962, Meredith has moved away from the civil rights mainstream. Among his achievements since joining Helms' staff last year: firing off a press release in July declaring that of the 3,000 delegates to the recent convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "I have a background profile on more than half of ((them)), and over 60% are involved in the drug culture and at least 80% are involved in criminal or immoral activities" Helms mildly criticized Meredith for using Senate letterhead. Gantt called Meredith's comments "racist." Democratic National Committee chairman Ron Brown, a black, whom Meredith called on to admit whether he had ever used drugs, said through a spokeswoman that he would "submit to a drug test any day of the week if James Meredith submits to an IQ test." The latest Mason-Dixon poll shows Gantt only slightly ahead, with 46% of the vote to Helms' 44%.

These clumsy techniques show that being a WMC is not as much of an asset as it used to be. WMCs are, after all, mainly to blame for the bulging deficit, the savings and loan debacle and a host of other ills. Substantively and stylistically, it's a minefield out there for the WMC. This may be the year when outsiders have the inside track.