Sitting It Out

As the only woman ever nominated for Vice President by a major political party, Geraldine Ferraro emerged from the shambles of the Democrats' 1984 defeat with her political fortunes damaged but by no means destroyed. Moreover, a New York Senate seat held by a Republican was coming up for grabs in 1986, offering the former Congresswoman a chance to get back to Washington. But last week Ferraro took herself out of the Senate contest and, at least temporarily, off the political stage. At a crowded press conference held in the Queens Borough Hall, where she had appeared last year with Running Mate Walter Mondale, a subdued Ferraro admitted somberly, "I don't know what the future holds."

Ferraro attributed her abstention solely to a 16-month-old Justice Department investigation into her financial background. The probe is focused on the funding of her initial 1978 House race and some of her financial disclosure statements while in office. In 1979 the Federal Election Commission fined her husband-campaign manager John Zaccaro and her committee $750 for arranging $130,000 in loans from her family, well in excess of the $1,000 legal limit allowed for individual contributors. The House Ethics Committee, which looked into Ferraro's failure to report fully her and her husband's incomes, found that she had committed technical violations but did not take further action. Ferraro has been unable to learn whether the Justice Department probe will end before the 1986 Senate campaign, and decided that the uncertainty would be fatal. Said she: "If the investigation was still pending, the issue would be Geraldine Ferraro."

Ferraro's finances, which bedeviled her 1984 campaign, were not her only political liability. Alfonse D'Amato, who squeaked into office five years ago in a three-way contest, has confounded Democrats by building a formidable base for a second-term bid. A tireless campaigner who tends assiduously to home- state details, D'Amato has amassed a war chest of $7 million. Last week, even though the Democrats have yet to come up with a candidate, five New York City unions, including those representing city employees and transit workers, endorsed D'Amato, bringing his statewide total to nearly 70. Even New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, has praised him as "a miracle worker" for his ability to win funding for local projects such as a Navy base on Staten Island and mass-transit repairs.

Aside from pondering the Senate race, Ferraro has been promoting her book Ferraro: My Story, a best seller since publication in November. She plans to add to the $1 million she has earned from that venture by joining a law firm, and she says she wants to remain active in public affairs. Said she: "I think I can be of service to my country without being in public office, at least for the time being." That qualifier left little doubt, however, that public office is where she would rather be.