But to the eyes of many observers, Democrats from Brooklyn to Buffalo, from the state committee to county organizations, still are struggling nearly two years after Mario Cuomo's loss to George Pataki to regain their confidence, their message and the power that comes from an enrollment advantage over Republicans by some 1.4 million voters. Many Democrats complain that the state committee's new leadership—State Chair Judith Hope and Executive Chair John Sullivan—is too weak, too quiet or too captive to the needs of the party's Assembly membership. Others say this "new" Democratic Party looks too much like the one neglected during Cuomo's 12 years as governor.

 When Cuomo left office, the state Democratic Party was nearly $700,000 in debt—though Hope says the books finally are balanced—with no money available for a staff or office. The party suffered without an effective statewide organization or any mission beyond Cuomo's re-election needs.

 Looking to rebound, Hope has been plugging the financial hole while Sullivan has been working to rebuild the party's base, particularly upstate, where a strong Republican voter turnout was a major factor in Pataki's victory.

 But Pataki's election also was the culmination of years of steadily declining results and power for the Democrats, particularly as a statewide organization. The number of major losses in the last five years, by any measure, has been extreme: they lost the governor's seat, the New York City, Yonkers and Syracuse mayoralties, and 10 county executive seats. Thirteen of the state's 16 county executives are now Republicans. Also, 54 of the 62 county and New York City borough legislative bodies are Republican-run, whereas in 1990 Republicans controlled 43. While the Democrats enjoy a 95-54 edge in the state Assembly and a 17-14 advantage among New York's congressional delegation, they still trail Republicans in the state Senate 37-24.

 The Democrats might have been victims of the inevitable 20-year cycle of politics, some politicos say. But the state party also was lax and too focused on Cuomo, while Republicans were more aggressive, better organized, better prepared and more committed to winning more races, particularly local contests. Unlike the Democrats, the Republican State Committee was involved intimately in local elections that helped build support for Pataki's victory in 1994.

 Still, the Democrats have experienced success even as they labor to rebuild. They've benefited from the backlash nationally and in New York against some of the policies of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Pataki and other Republicans. Demonizing the GOP as greedy corporate raiders interested in tax breaks for their rich friends and cuts in services for the middle class and poor has become a theme most New York Democrats now espouse. Latching onto a theme defining what the Democrats themselves are all about, however, has proven more difficult.

 New York Republicans, on the other hand, have rallied the troops by casting themselves as tough on crime, taxes and excessive government. Chinks in the GOP armor first became noticeable in February, though, when Democrats won five of six special elections in the state Legislature, including a heavily Republican Assembly district outside Rochester. That victory in part encouraged Assembly Democrats to fight Pataki with some success on budget cuts and tougher criminal penalties this year.

 Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver—with the help of some obstinate Pataki aides—also has been able to attract the media to the issue of how Pataki's inaugural funds were spent. Meanwhile, public opinion ratings for Pataki and the Republicans' party leader, U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, remain below 50 percent. With Clinton poised to carry New York in November, there is hope that at least two and possibly more Republican congressional seats could be flipped over.

 "My basic line has been the Democratic Party is alive and well and on the rebound in New York state," Sullivan says. "But when I first started out, I've got to tell you, I was mouthing it, but I'm not sure I believed it. But after [visits to] about 45 counties, I believe it."

Last month the Democrats put the spotlight back on Cuomo, inviting him to be their featured speaker at the opening of the "Victorv '96" headquarters for the Clinton and state Democratic campaigns. Some Democrats say the invitation was an indication that party leaders decided it's time to forgive Cuomo's stewardship of the Democratic Party. Others believe his appearance reflects their confidence that, at least in New York City, Democrats once again can run as liberal guardians of government programs. For Democrats throughout the state, Pataki's public opinion ratings are helping them line up behind a message that at least allows them to say who they are not: Pataki.

 Still, Democrats have not forgotten that under Cuomo and former Gov. Hugh Carey before him, the state party apparatus served the governor and virtually no one else. When Senate Democrats had a legitimate shot at taking over the Senate majority in the mid-1980s, Cuomo and party leaders stayed on the sidelines. The next campaign produced the chicanery that led to indictments against former Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein and others. Supporters of former New York City Mayor David Dinkins also believe Cuomo and the party did too little to help Dinkins' campaign against Rudolph Giuliani.

 Republicans, meanwhile, were building a local base steadily, winning municipal elections and raising the money that eventually would overwhelm Cuomo and the Democrats' huge enrollment advantage.

 The final straw for Cuomo critics was his refusal to give the state Democratic committee the remains of his campaign treasury. For many, it was another disappointment from the man who refused his party's call to run for president and whose defeat left the state committee in disarray. Cuomo says he has heard no such criticism.

 The Democrats have yet to display the singular purpose and cohesion that D'Amato and State Republican Party Chairman William Powers brought to the Republican Party. The state's best known serving Democrat, U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has not shown near the interest in party politics that D'Amato has, which by any account has been extraordinary. Party watchers contend he may be the only congressional leader this century to have played such a central role in creating a statewide organization in New York.

 "Usually a party responds to a governor. But because [the Republicans] lost five straight gubernatorial elections, the only guy they had winning statewide election was D'Amato, and his team stepped onto the field," says one Democratic campaign consultant. "And that included his pollster and his media guy.... [W]hen they got behind a candidate (Pataki), that candidate had tremendous credibility with money people. And that's what gave them their party."

 The Democratic Party's elected leadership for the most part has proven too busy preparing their own organizations to invest much effort in the state committee. That task has been left to Silver, an attorney from Manhattan, who was the first and, in many ways, the only Democratic leader to attempt to replace Cuomo as the party's statewide boss. His colleagues in the party say they are willing to let Silver control the state organization as long as it doesn't dominate their own. For, despite the Democratic Party signs that read "Unity is Vlctory," unity is in short supply among New York Democrats.

 One reason is simply that too many of them come from too many parts of the state. Upstate Democrats, for example, clash with the agenda of downstate members and with the perception that the Democratic Party is dominated by New York City interests. Also. a pack of would-be governors and U.S. senators is preparing for the 1998 election but has kept its distance from the new state party, giving Hope and Sullivan little of the support they need to create a truly statewide organization. And after 20 years of holding the Executive Mansion, the party is struggling to adapt to its new role as the minority in Albany politics. "They don't have a focus yet of what the 'out' party does," says political consultant Norman Adler.

 The party "is not used to being out of power and [Hope] succeeds a guy (Cuomo's former aide Al Gordon) who was almost anonymous," Adler says. "So it's not like somebody else built the foundation and all she's got to do is put on the roof.... I certainly don't hold her responsible for the poor state of the party right now."

 "The Democrats also have a special problem message-wise because of the drift away from the party's traditional themes," says Marist Institute pollster Lee Miringoff. "Clinton is not going to be the scriptwriter for a New York campaign.... [The state Democratic Party] doesn't have a focus yet, and Bill Clinton is moving in a direction that's too far [right] for New York state Democrats"

 Indeed, conservative elements in the party even a union organizer—say privately that New York Democrats still are viewed as the party of the welfare state. Democrats talk about protecting the middle class, citing for example the Assembly's battles against a tuition increase for the state and city universities of New York as well as Pataki's proposals to cut state aid to school districts. But, ultimately, the party's leaders, particularly in Albany, quietly have attempted to protect welfare and other programs that don't directly benefit the middle class.

 With a political organization as large and diverse as the Democrats', party Democrats say it should be less concerned about developing a "message" and more focused on building its organization. "The issue really is leadership, and there really isn't a commanding figure [in the state organization] who can speak effectively for the entire party," says a senior Democratic officeholder who asked not to be identified. State GOP Chairman Powers "was aggressive and outspoken and pretty blunt at times. But ... he was the leader in charge, and I don't think we've got that kind of leadership. Look at the division [of authority]. Judith Hope was given the job [of chairman], but then they put John Sullivan there to watch her. That doesn't help provide this image of strong, effective leadership."

 But the problem may be more fundamental and beyond the reach of Hope or anyone else. Without a governor behind them, there's very little muscle there," says a former campaign director.

 Local party leaders suggest privately that they don't expect much from the state party and don't see much leadership emanating from it. One reason is the party, during the Cuomo and Carey years, was built around the governor's needs. Hence, the wish lists of local party leaders mostly went unnoticed. "When you have a very strong governor; it weakens the party to some extent," says Gerry Hudson, the current political director for the state Democratic Committee.

 Others, like Robert Quintana, a Buffalo councilman and rising young star in the party, believe the state party is broadening its reach and organizational structure. "I think everybody was shocked that the Republicans took the state [in 1994]," he says. "It sent a very big wake-up call to Democrats all around the state. I think that's why you see now a bridging of various communities."

 "What we're trying to do is rebuild very basically from the grassroots," Sullivan says. "That is, quite frankly, new to [the New York] Democratic Party."

 Sullivan, the former mayor of Oswego, has created a "Rural Conference to promote and encourage upstate Democrats and their concerns. The party also is advertising a "Who's Who" among New York Democratic officials and local party leaders. The goal of these efforts is to "at least pull the Democratic baseline vote," Sullivan says.

 Both he and Hope say critics simply aren't aware of the financial and organizational progress they have made the past two years. "Much of this work is not done in front of TV cameras," Hope says. "But the end result is strong candidates with good shots at winning elections. Ultimately, we will be judged on whether we win election, and that really is the only currency that spends in this game."

 "Go back nine months, 12 months. The president . . . didn't look like a sure thing hardly anywhere, including New York state," says Bill DeBlasio, director of the "coordinated" campaign for Clinton and New York state races. People predicted the Democratic Assembly would turn Republican and that Democrats would make no inroads in the Republican-controlled state Senate or the GOP-run Congress, he says.

 But "you get judged by the product, and . . . the product looks pretty good right now," he says, adding that Democratic gains will be better than anyone expected.

 Others aren't so sure. Critics of Silver and the state Democratic leadership believe the state committee is too interested in re-electing the Assembly's majority to send any real assistance to other candidates, including those vying for the state Senate and county offices.

 But Hope and Sullivan say the committee's real focus is on congressional challengers and New York's contribution to a possible Democratic takeover there.

 Aides to some of the congressional candidates complain that their contact with the state committee has not been very fruitful. For example, one candidate's contact with the state committee amounted to the organization asking for the candidate's campaign sign.

 Such talk surprises Hope and Sullivan, who say they plan to provide significant help to congressional candidates. Hope says the state organization deserves some credit for recruiting candidates such as Carolyn McCarthy, a Republican housewife whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Railroad massacre.

 Clinton's strength in New York is not helping fund-raising efforts either. Are we getting as much financial help as we wished? No, not at this moment in time," says Hope. "With the president leading in New York by 20 to 24 points, the Democratic National Committee is not going to be flooding resources into this state this time."

 Compounding the problem is the fact that the national Democratic campaigns are taking more money out of the state than they're leaving behind for congressional candidates, for voter registration and for other state party efforts.

 Aside from fund-raising, New Yorkers complain that the presidential campaign has been a missed opportunity to help rebuild the state party. "The Clinton campaign could have been a real catalyst for organizing the party. But there's been no Clinton campaign [in New York]," one prominent Democrat complained before the Republican convention. "That's not New York's fault. It's because Clinton has decided he's got New York in the bag and [Republican presidential candidate Robert] Dole has done so badly here.... [A] number of us have been very upset about the lack of resources."

 The Democrats have several office-holders I who would like to be their party's D'Amato or Pataki or wield the political clout of Powers. In addition to Silver, State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer, New York City Council President Peter Vallone and New York City Public Advocate Mark Green are among the party's stars. But no one dominates the party, and each has stayed more than an arm's length away from each other and from the state Democratic Committee, particularly since Silver sought to control the state party apparatus following Cuomo's defeat. Other leaders say controlling the state committee wasn't worth the fight.

 Silver's victory has been somewhat hollow, producing an unprecedented co-chairmanship of the state committee that has not helped unify top Democrats. And because of Silver's involvement, many in the party see the state committee as an appendage of the Assemblv Democrats and its effective campaign committee. There is also a perception that Silver's interest in the party has waned given his duties in Albany. Many party insiders question whether he has been effective as Pataki's chief critic, largely because Silver ultimately must reach agreements with the governor.

 Doubts about Silver as leader of the party make many recast their attention toward Sullivan and Hope, whose preoccupation with rebuilding the party reminds some of Powers early in his tenure. Hope, proudly speaks of the newspaper articles in which she's quoted. Both she and Sullivan mention the awards their computer home page has won.

 And yet such accomplishments fail to satisfy those who privately complain about their leadership, though no one appeals able or willing to replace Hope or Sullivan. "I think there's a chance [of unseating them], but if there's an attempt to do it, your headline will again be "Democrats are fighting," says one party leader. "So there's a sense that people don't want to challenge the leadership. They want an impression of unity finally." Hope and Sullivan are expected to seek reelection to their party posts in September, though critics doubt whether their re-elections will confer the kind of respect and organizational discipline that has been absent so far. Such discord, with major statewide races approaching in 1998, points to a party still suffering from years of neglect and relative inactivity. But supporters of candidates expected to run in 1998 suggest that a strong state party isn't necessary to defeat the Republicans. They and others question whether state parties are important any longer. Who needs a state organization when candidates can buy pollsters, petition signatures, fund-raisers and consultants? "Realistically, state committees have declined in power the last couple of decades, and an individual aspirant's record and resources have gained in power," Green says.

 Many inside and outside the party agree the statewide success of New York Republicans and the recent organizational failures of the Democrats prove that an effective state organization can mean the difference in a tight election.

 But Democrats as the majority party "feel a less compelling need" to organize as the Republicans have done in recent years, says Gerald Benjamin, state government director at Rockefeller College in Albany. They should feel otherwise, he warns. Despite the Democrats' 1.5 million voter enrollment advantage, "those numbers are very soft. They should make sure those voters are really there. They should be creating the infrastructure for [1998]," he says.

 "Judith, Gerry [Hudson] and a lot of other people have been out working in the vineyards to make sure an infrastructure [comes] together," says DeBlasio. A lot of what they do just "doesn't show.... People think this stuff falls from trees and it doesn't."

 "Where they were wrong and we've been right is that we have not lost sight of the grassroots,' said state Republican Chairman William Powers. "It's what got us to where we are today." 

Jon Sorensen is Albany bureau chief for the Buffalo News
 
 

Republican Powers
 
 

There may be more than a little male chauvinism in the criticism of state Democratic Chair Judith Hope, who chose the word "chair" rather than chairwoman a her title.

 In New York after all, politicians like to talk tough, smoke cigars and look like burly ex-Marine Bill Powers, not the diminutive Hope. Hope also is known as a fund-raiser. Powers, the GOP state committee chairman, usually is described as a fighter.

 After rebuilding the GOP that in 1990 was $1.6 million in debt and firmly entrenched as New York's minority party, Powers and U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato created a statewide organization that previously existed only in Nassau County and some towns scattered across the state. While Republicans were winning nationally, Powers-D'Amato were racking up wins in local elections, culminating with the New York City mayoralty for Rudolph Giuliani 1992.

 It was a different image the party projected only six years earlier when it struggled to find a challenger to Mario Cuomo in his first bid for re-election as governor. The Republican state convention began with then-Chairman Anthony Colavita splitting his pants as he climbed on top of an elephant.

 "The reason 1 ran for the state chairman in a contested election [against Colavita] was because I believed that if we built our party from the ground up we could beat Cuomo," Powers says. "I don't think there was a town or a county . . . even a village election we weren't involved in."

 When he was elected in 1991—following the disastrous Pierre Rinfret campaign against Cuomo—Powers recalled, "We had no foundation. The Republican Party in my belief never demonstrated they had a base they could draw. My thing was the more people you collect locally, and each time you elect people locally, you're going to build."

 "I think Powers was the most unusual party chairman to come down in years," says political consultant Norman Adler, who advises both Republicans and Democrats. Powers' tenacity and organizational skills were made more formidable by D'Amato's unusual decision to become a statewide political leader.

 While others say state committees don't matter any more, Powers says it likely made the difference in high-profile races such as Pataki vs. Cuomo and Republican Attorney General Dennis Vacco vs. Democratic challenger Karen Burstein. "The state party is incredibly important. It can be the difference between winning and losing in a close campaign," Powers says.

 The Republicans also have imposed a cohesiveness rarely seen in modern-day American politics. "They have been successful at rallying the party activists at the local level and then they took a very disciplined approach to selecting their candidates," say Gerald Benjamin of Rockefeller College. "They use the party organization to focus energy and attention very effectively to raise money and create the infrastructure and polling and all the other activities needed to win."

 The Powers-D'Amato machine, using direct mail and constant phone banking, have increased the GOP's donor list from 134,000 to more than 200,000, Powers says. "Our goal for '98 is to keep the fundraising in place to get the Pataki message out," he says. "We've got to be prepared for an onslaught by liberal interests that want to make New York a debtor state again."

 But Powers seems to take the greatest pride in whipping an outmanned organization into shape and winning races in traditionally Democratic areas. Last year, the GOP added to its fold the mayoralty of Yonkers and, for the first time, control of the Rockland County Legislature.

 "We're used to fighting [long] odds," says Powers, who recalls being surrounded by the Cuban Army at the Marine outpost at Gauntanamo Bay. "Abe Lincoln said it and it's something we have up on our wall, and it's never changed. Identify your voters, get them to the polls and you win."

 It's the same wall where Powers once hung a picture of Cuomo. "I was myopic," Powers says of his campaign to oust the three-term Democrat in the Executive Mansion.

 As for advice for the Democrats, Power says, "I'm very happy with them continuing what they're doing."

 —Jon Sorensen