Waiting, Writing Cuomo

MANCHESTER, N.H.--Barry Scannell, the store manager at the Cuomo's Appliances here, realized something was up when his phone began ringing off the hook.

"In the last week or so, we've been getting 15 or 20 additional calls a day," Scannell said.

The calls, he says, are coming not from eager consumers in search of washers and dryers but from New Hampshire voters looking for information about what has become the most intriguing political story in the state: the write-in campaign to nominate New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Cuomo officially declared his decision not to run for the presidency on Dec. 20 but has refused to disavow the upstart write-in campaign.

The Cuomo movement has quickly gained steam since its birth in this state a few weeks ago; the non-candidate candidate registered in surveys of New Hampshire Democrats for the first time this week, checking in with between four and eight percent of the vote.

"It hasn't even been two months since this began," said Phil Krone, co-chair of the National Draft Cuomo Campaign. The Chicago-based organization held its first large event this past Sunday--an afternoon rally at Notre Dame College here. Krone addressed an overflow crowd.

"We feel sure that the people of New Hampshire are thinking, and they will use pencil-power on Tuesday," said Krone, as the behind him struck up the first few chords of the theme to the motion picture Rocky.

Just how much "pencil-power" the campaign will win today--and how much it needs to continue on to other states--is anything but certain.

Some have suggested that a strong showing for the write-in campaign would complicate the race and could force former California Gov. Edmund G. Brown--or even Sen. Tom Harkin or Sen. Bob Kerrey--to quit the race.

But those candidates maintain that they do not consider Cuomo a real threat.

"To be a candidate, you have got to get into the race," Kerrey said after a campaign stop in Concord yesterday. "I feel very good about where I am in this campaign."

Some Cuomo supporters suggest--or hope--that the non-candidate candidate could receive 15 percent or more of the vote today, enough to receive national convention delegates from the Granite State.

Gregory Nedham, a 44-year-old unemployed Maine native and Cuomo supporter, said the makeshift campaign hopes to use New Hampshire as a springboard to other states in the region.

"We've got the state of Maine at least half-organized," he said during Sunday's rally.

Cuomo fans say the write-in campaign may be more than a Northeastern phenomenon. Indeed, officials at the National Draft Cuomo headquarters in Chicago say they are already building a strong base in the Midwest.

"We're trying to draft him at the convention," said Jeanine M. Pedersen, the office manager of the Chicago branch, which boasts 500 volunteers. "If we can win the election in Illinois, we can be there [at the Democratic convention in New York City] in force," she added.

The write-in campaign, both here and in Illinois, focuses on teaching voters people how to write in Cuomo's name, Pedersen said. The group launched a new television and radio ad campaign here last Wednesday.

The commercials, along with cards that are being distributed throughout the state by campaign volunteers, show voters how to push up a slot on the top of the state's ballot and provide instructions on writing in the governor's name.

"Without a doubt, he is the most capable person out there," said Thomas C. Bardakian, a 55-year-old sales manager who attended the rally. "I think after Tuesday, Governor Cuomo and his staff are going to reevaluate."