High Profile for Mrs. Cuomo’s Child-Abuse Program

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICKING--New York Gov. Mario Cuomo is busy denying reports from allegedly close-in Democrats that he’ll make a decision on a presidential run by the end of the month. But wait--from the mail, it looks like Matilda Cuomo is already beginning her run for First Lady.

A hefty press kit ballyhooing her efforts as an advocate for child-abuse programs has been sent to West Coast media--prefaced by a cover letter from Martin Steadman, Cuomo’s director of communications, offering New York’s First Lady for interviews, etc. This was her “project” (much as drugs are First Lady Nancy Reagan’s) during Cuomo’s just-ended campaign for his second term as governor.

Californians get a close look at Cuomo on Feb. 11 at the dinner honoring attorney Frank Wheat and benefiting the Center for Law and the Public Interest. Long-time center board member and short-time Cuomo advocate Stanley Sheinbaum was the key in putting together the L.A. stop, helped by Cuomo buddy Nancy Pelosi. The benefit is part of a five-visit national tour. (It is not yet known whether Mrs. Cuomo will accompany her husband.) Still, if New York insiders are right, and a decision is made by the end of this month either to renounce presidential ambition or to announce an exploratory committee, then the tone of the center dinner changes. Either you have a very hot presidential candidate--or you have someone who, at the best, will give a very hot speech.

The first big break in Republican ranks has occurred--William Keck II has signed on to assist Sen. Bob Dole in his potential presidential campaign. A very big break for Dole . . .

Insiders to Sen. Pete Wilson say that state Sen. John Seymour is the principal contender to run Wilson’s re-election campaign. One Wilson supporter said the former Anaheim mayor is a long-time political and personal friend of Wilson--who will wind up with a lot of new major Democratic supporters on his committee, no doubt. . . .

And, the unsuccessful senatorial contender--Rep. Ed Zschau--spent Tuesday, as the new senators were being sworn in, on a VIP tour of the White House with his daughter. . . .

Sen. Richard Lugar, the Indiana Republican who just beat out Sen. Jesse Helms as the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will be at lunch today at Trumps with a goodly number of corporate public affairs officers. Donald G. Livingston put it together with AT&T;’s Bill Devine. . . .

Californians supporting the possible presidential candidacy of Sen. Joseph Biden got a one-day Delaware visit with him Wednesday. Biden was back from a week in Hawaii, strategizing with pollster Pat Cadell. . . .

Former Sen. Gary Hart will be in California in late January--but won’t be visiting the State Democratic Convention on Jan. 31 where a few other presidential hopefuls (like Jesse Jackson and Biden) will be appearing. Hart will do a fund-raiser for state Sen. John Garamendi in San Francisco Jan. 28, then appear at a Beverly Hills benefit for his own ’84 campaign debt the next night. Democratic honcho Peter Kelly said that Hart obviously wanted to avoid a possible straw poll--since he’s seen as the front runner and would have to maintain that position. Another long-time pol pointed out that if Hart were to get involved in a straw poll, it would cost him cash--putting together the necessary phone calling and organizational strategy.

FOLLOW THAT INITIATIVE--Frank Casada of Lucy’s El Adobe has long answered to the nickname Pancho. But not any more. “Hey, the law is English only now,” the sly Casada insisted. Financier Luis Nogales, who just took over the Spanish International Network, kiddingly added that even the name El Adobe might have to go under the new law. “That’s right. Change it from El Adobe to Hunter’s Inn.”

THANK GOODNESS--Here’s the press release opening line of this new year. “The women in Los Angeles have been told time and again that there just aren’t any eligible bachelors . . . wrong.” What it’s advertising is a Feb. 12 benefit, featuring Dyan Cannon, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where for $25 a woman will get a chance to bid on a date with a bachelor. The guys get the chance to describe themselves and their “evening out” in an auction catalogue. And the money goes to support Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles. We’ll be watching this one.