POLITICAL BRIEFING

MARIO’S MESSAGE: Geraldine A. Ferraro has yet to endorse the rival who narrowly defeated her in New York’s Democratic Senate primary last month, and that has forced Gov. Mario M. Cuomo to try to play peacemaker. . . . Cuomo recently revealed that Ferraro remains upset that the primary winner, state Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams, did not denounce attacks on her character and ethics that another candidate launched in the campaign’s waning days. The attacks erased Ferraro’s large lead in the polls. Cuomo said he told Ferraro that he understood her hurt, but that it was “a lot to ask of a person who is running against you to help you by condemning another candidate.” . . . Abrams can use a united party. A new poll showed him with only a six-percentage-point lead over Republican Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato. The incumbent had been viewed as highly vulnerable, but he clearly has benefited from the Democratic discord.