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Some Democratic officials regard Cuomo's announcement as part of a strategy of running for President by not running. Party leaders in key states see Cuomo's move as a practical one. Says New Hampshire State Democratic Chairman George Bruno: "It was the smart and logical thing to do." Cuomo is the Democrats' most influential and visible state executive, and it would make no sense for him to abandon his forum. Notes Alvin From, executive director of the Democratic Leadership Council: "The best strategy for a Governor in his position is to get safely re-elected this year."
The fact that Cuomo is being considered for the presidency at all is phenomenal. Until age 46, he had never held elective office. The lawyer from Queens, N.Y., lost his first two bids for election. After his defeat in a race for New York City mayor in 1977, he was considered politically dead. No one gave him a chance when he declared for Governor in 1982. His victory three years ago was the first election he had ever won without running on someone else's coattails. His three years in office have been relatively uneventful. Yet now, even as he carefully denies any present plans to seek the presidency, he is considered one of the Democratic Party's shining stars.
It was only after his stem-winder at the 1984 Democratic National Convention (a speech he today regards as far too emotional) that Mario Cuomo pierced the larger American consciousness. Already this year he has been asked to speak in nearly every state; colleges beckon him with offers of commencement addresses. Democratic fund raisers say that his name is a magnet for money. Wherever he speaks, he dazzles audiences with his verbal virtuosity and moves them with the evocation of his oft-repeated theme of family: "The sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all." "He's the most exciting, vibrant politician in America today," says Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, a man who is often mentioned as a Democratic contender.
Cuomo, for all his somewhat disingenuous reluctance, finds himself playing a central character in the uncertain saga of his party. In the Age of Reagan, Democrats are a party in search of direction. Cuomo has the potential to be the muscular philosopher-prince who can teach them to preserve what is best of traditional liberalism in an era of fiscal conservatism. He is, in fact, a kind of microcosm of the divided soul of the party. As the man who runs, as he likes to put it, "the greatest state in the greatest nation in the only world we know," Cuomo believes that his mission is to meld old-fashioned compassion with fiscal common sense. In jest, he calls himself the founder of the Progressive Pragmatist Party. He is quick, however, to trumpet what would be its platform: a kind of frugal liberalism, conservatism with a human face. If this self-described progressive pragmatist can act as mediator between the Democratic Party's left wing, including Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, and the assertive right, symbolized by the Democratic Leadership Council, he could become its center of gravity. In defining himself, Cuomo may help redefine his party.