By Karen Foerstel, CQ Staff Writer

Watching New York Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato in action calls to mind the old saw about making laws and sausage. It may not be pretty to watch, but in the end you get a solid product, appealing to some, stomach-turning to others.

Supporters and detractors alike agree: D'Amato is hard-working and does whatever it takes to reach his goal, whether it is threatening to shut down the Senate until his bill is passed, strong-arming local officials to help a constituent out of a bind or suddenly championing liberal causes in order to win re-election votes. Some call the Republican's tactics overbearing and underhanded; others say he is just a good politician.

With Election Day five months off, D'Amato is pulling out all the stops. Democrats have placed the 60-year-old senator at the top of their most-wanted list, and polls show D'Amato neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Geraldine Ferraro, the former House member (1979-85) and 1984 vice presidential nominee. A divisive Democratic primary race Sept. 15 involving Ferraro, Rep. Charles E. Schumer and New York City Public Advocate Mark Green could help D'Amato in the long run, but he is not taking any chances.

He has already amassed a $10.5 million war chest and has spent nearly $5.5 million on the campaign during the past year. He has told supporters he wants to raise $24 million before the end of the race.

Schumer ranks second in fundraising with $8 million cash on hand, followed by Ferraro with $1 million and Green with $830,000, according to Federal Election Commission reports as of March 31.

D'Amato has been blanketing the television airwaves for more than a year. In May 1997, 18 months before Election Day, D'Amato began running TV spots across the state touting his environmental record. But the ads, which praised D'Amato for "fighting to protect New York's environment," made many environmentalists cringe.

The League of Conservation Voters has consistently placed D'Amato at the bottom of their ratings list. In 1994, the LCV gave D'Amato a zero rating out of 100. In 1995, he scored a 7, followed by another zero in 1996. Last year, his LCV rating jumped all the way to 29 percent. Leading up to his re-election bid in 1992, D'Amato got a 40 percent rating in 1991 and a 58 percent rating in 1992.

"He votes like [Sen.] Jesse Helms and runs like Jesse Jackson," Democratic opponent Green is fond of saying. "Al D'Amato polls before breakfast, and he's decided to run as an environmental advocate, a consumer advocate, a woman's advocate, a children's advocate."

Oddly enough, strong supporters of D'Amato agree with Green, but insist there is nothing wrong with using polling data to figure out what the voters want.

"He studies the polls. He almost lives and breathes by them," said Rep. Peter T. King, R-N.Y., a friend and supporter of D'Amato. "He has incredible powers of self-analysis. He knows what he's doing wrong and he knows what he's doing right."

Whitewater Turnaround

Polling data has certainly forced D'Amato to rethink several policy positions in recent years.

In 1996, while D'Amato was leading the attack against President Clinton during his Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Commitee hearings on the Whitewater land deal, D'Amato saw his popularity numbers plummet. A Marist College (N.Y.) poll at the time gave D'Amato a disapproval rating of 68.2 percent. D'Amato has since backed off from his Whitewater attacks and has even turned his fire against Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Last year, D'Amato said the American public was "sick and tired" of Whitewater and that Starr had damaged his credibility by publicly toying with the idea of leaving his post for a job in academia.

D'Amato made another political turnaround last year when he appeared on the steps of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside a line of chorus girls clad in gold leotards. The troupe had received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

During the event, D'Amato railed against efforts to cut funds for the NEA, saying "the health and vitality of the arts community must be nurtured." But in 1989, he joined Helms, R-N.C., in bashing the NEA for funding "trash." D'Amato ripped up a catalogue on the Senate floor containing an NEA-funded Andres Serrano photograph of a crucifix submerged in a container of urine.

In liberal-leaning New York, D'Amato also is courting the women's vote and has made breast cancer research one of his top priorities. His bill (S249), co-sponsored with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would allow doctors, not insurance companies, to decide the length of a hospital stay after a mastectomy and require health insurance companies to pay for reconstructive breast surgery.

It has turned into his battle cry for this election year. D'Amato threatened to shut down the Senate and wreak "mayhem" if Democrats, who complained that the bill was too narrowly drawn, continued to block it. The Finance Committee finally agreed to attach the language to the tobacco bill (S1415).

Ferraro recently criticized the bill, arguing that it fell short of mandating minimum 48-hour hospital stays for mastectomy patients. But the move quickly backfired. Leading cancer groups, including the American Cancer Society and the National Breast Cancer Coalition, rushed to D'Amato's defense.

Green insists that D'Amato's "election-year pirouettes" will not win him any votes. He said that while D'Amato has moved to the left on several high-profile items, he still toes the Republican line on most issues. He criticized D'Amato for his 1993 vote against the so-called Brady law (HR1025 -- PL 103-159) requiring a five-day waiting period for the purchase of a handgun and his consistent record against abortion.

"He hopes people have amnesia about his record," Green said.

D'Amato declined repeated requests for an interview to answer his Democratic critics. Lisette McSoud Mondello, a spokeswoman for the senator, disputed suggestions that he flip-flops on issues in election years.

"All of Sen. D'Amato's votes are in favor of working, middle-class New Yorkers," Mondello said.

Banking Moves

D'Amato's move toward the left on policy issues has also become apparent in the Banking Committee, which he chairs. This past May, D'Amato joined with every Democrat on the panel to defeat a Republican amendment that would have benefited the banking industry and taken a slap at credit unions. (CQ Weekly, p. 1158)

"There's a lot of credit unions in New York," said Ed Yingling, chief lobbyist for the American Bankers Association. "I'm sure politics had something to do with it."

D'Amato, in fact, has turned the committee into the ideal election-year platform for a number of populist issues. He held hearings last year to champion his legislation (S885) to ban banks from double-charging consumers who use automated teller (ATM) machines. The bill has stalled. He has pushed legislation (S1203) to cap consumer liability on lost or stolen debit cards and to prevent active debit cards from being mailed to consumers. And he has held a series of highly publicized hearings criticizing the Swiss government for protecting Nazi gold stored in its banks during World War II.

At one hearing, D'Amato proudly held up a cartoon that appeared in a Swiss newspaper depicting a Swiss father chastising his son at the dinner table. "Eat your soup or I'll tell Senator D'Amato," the father threatens. In February, Clinton signed into law D'Amato's bill (S1564 -- PL 105-158) authorizing up to $25 million to repay Holocaust survivors who lost their assets in World War II. In May, the Senate passed, by voice vote, D'Amato's bill (S1900) to establish a $3.5 million, 21-member commission to determine if the U.S. government has held assets belonging to Holocaust victims. The issue has won him widespread praise from the Jewish community, a large voting bloc in New York.

But some in the banking industry have complained that he has done little to push through major legislation of interest to banks.

"He's carried forward a minimalist agenda in terms of legislation and oversight," said Ken Guenther, executive vice president for the Independent Bankers Association of America. "The committee has not struggled with any major financial restructuring legislation."

D'Amato's committee has yet to take up the massive financial overhaul bill (HR10) that passed the House by one vote last month. The controversial bill is opposed by the banking industry and would certainly put D'Amato in a tough position during this election year if he moves forward on it. D'Amato has promised to hold hearings on the bill, but said there is little chance the Senate will take any action on it before the elections.

Yingling said D'Amato's leadership of the banking panel amounts to a "mixed bag." He concedes that D'Amato has taken some stances against the banking industry, including his push to ban double-charging for ATM use and his siding with the credit unions, and he said that bankers understand the give-and-take of politics.

"Banking is a large industry. We have a lot of issues before us. We constantly have to go to the committees, to the chairmen of committees on issues. We don't like [the ATM fees bill] but I don't think we're in the position to judge a chairman on one issue," Yingling said.

The banking industry has been good to D'Amato. In the past year, individual contributors associated with the banking industry have given D'Amato $188,600, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Banking political action committees gave an additional $60,750. But some within the industry have complained that D'Amato plays hardball when it comes to political support.

"Neither he nor his staff forgive or forget. They play on fear. 'You go against me and I'm going to get you,' " said one banking lobbyist, who declined to be identified. "You don't have to go for the jugular every time, but intimidation tactics all too often work."

Yingling disagreed.

"I guess it depends on your level of tolerance. I don't find him intimidating. He is very blunt. He doesn't mince words," Yingling said of D'Amato. "He's a good politician, and good politicians keep track of things."

As an example, many in the banking industry point to a bill (S1986) D'Amato introduced in April to dissolve the Federal Housing Finance Board. Most believe he drafted the bill in direct retaliation against board chairman Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic House member from Connecticut (1983-91). Exactly one month before D'Amato offered his "Federal Home Loan Bank System Regulatory Restructuring Act of 1998" on the Senate floor, the White House, with Morrison's backing, kicked long-time member Lawrence Costiglio off the board. D'Amato had helped appoint Costiglio to the board in 1990.

Mondello said the purpose of D'Amato's bill was only "to update an archaic and ineffective regulatory system."

But for all his tough tactics, those who know D'Amato say he has one weak spot: He hates to be alone. Whenever New York's House delegation has to meet with D'Amato in his office, they all arrive and depart at exactly the same time. Otherwise, D'Amato hangs on to any stragglers and forces them to stay with him for a long night of eating, drinking, gossiping and talking politics.D'Amato's ties to the New York GOP political machine run deep, and his increasing power has coincided with the decline of the state's Democratic Party. New York's GOP party chairman, William Powers, is a former D'Amato aide, and Gov. George E. Pataki owes his job to the senator. In 1994, D'Amato hand-picked Pataki, a relatively unknown state senator, to challenge Democratic Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. D'Amato raised money for Pataki and organized his campaign staff, pushing him to victory.

But D'Amato's political prowess does not stop at the state line. From 1995-96, he chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee and far outpaced his Democratic counterparts in fundraising.

During D'Amato's time at the helm, the NRSC raised more than $54 million in "hard money," which amounted to more than twice the $25 million raised by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Entering the 1996 election, with the Democrats boasting a popular president at the top of the ticket and the heavy burden of holding on to the Republicans' narrow 53-47 edge in the Senate, D'Amato helped the GOP pick up two more seats.

D'Amato's unyielding political fundraising prompted former senator and presidential nominee Bob Dole, R-Kan., to call D'Amato "the man who won't take yes for an answer."

'Senator Pothole'

While many view D'Amato's political tactics with disdain, they admit he usually gets results. And no cause, especially those helping potential voters, is too small for D'Amato to take up.

Independent pollster John Zogby tells the story of a Palestinian friend whose American-born son was arrested by Israeli defense forces in 1992 while working as a photojournalist on the West Bank. The Palestinian friend was frantic for days, trying to track down his son. Zogby suggested that the man, who lived in New York, call D'Amato and ask for help. The friend, well aware of D'Amato's longtime support for Israel, was reluctant to contact the senator, whom he considered a political enemy. But after several days, Zogby called D'Amato on behalf of his friend.

"Twelve hours later, the son was on his way home," Zogby said.

But the story does not end there. Four years later, the Palestinian father got a letter from D'Amato clipped to a memo and a $500 check from the Israeli consulate. The money was reimbursement for the cost of the son's camera, which had been confiscated during the arrest. Zogby said his friend votes for D'Amato and has held fundraisers for the senator despite their diametrically opposed positions on Middle Eastern affairs.

" 'What can I do? He helped get my son home,' " Zogby quotes his friend.

It is constituent service such as that that has earned D'Amato the nickname "Senator Pothole" and has returned him to the Senate, despite his ever flagging popularity numbers. In 1992, a Zogby poll gave D'Amato a pitiful 32 percent approval rating.

Zogby's latest poll, taken in May, gave D'Amato one of his highest ratings ever, about 45 percent favorability, and showed him leading Ferraro by 2 percentage points.

A recent poll by Quinnipiac College (Conn.) Polling Institute showed D'Amato trailing Ferraro, 53 percent to 37 percent. But Maurice Carroll, director of the institute, said regardless of the numbers, D'Amato somehow always seems to pull through.

"He's a brilliant politician. He always does better [in the election] than he does in the polls," Carroll said. "If he's done anything wrong politically in the last year, it's escaped my attention."

Zogby agreed: "There's two playbooks. There's everybody else and there's D'Amato's."

Media Flair

D'Amato certainly has a flair for the dramatic and is unparalleled at gaining media attention. Some of his more outrageous stunts have included bringing a giant yellow pencil onto the Senate floor in 1993 which he used to stab a drawing of a monster-like "Tax-A-Saurus" that represented Clinton's economic program.

A year later, in 1994, D'Amato sang a rendition of "Old McDonald" on the Senate floor to highlight what he considered pork barrel spending in Clinton's crime bill. "With a pork, pork here and a pork, pork there," he sang to the cameras.

D'Amato has even put his love life in the spotlight. In 1995, he called a news conference to announce his undying love for gossip columnist Claudia Cohen. "Claudia is my Cinderella," D'Amato declared. "I feel kind of like the frog who has kissed the princess." The fairy tale came to an end about a year later.

But D'Amato's favorite attention-grabber is the filibuster, particularly during election years. (Story, p. 1510)

"He's incredibly hard-working, tireless, dedicated. Almost maniacal in getting what he wants," King said. "Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop. But if he didn't have these excesses, he wouldn't be Al D'Amato."

D'Amato's flamboyant tactics are in direct contrast to those of New York's senior senator, Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan. While Moynihan epitomizes the intellectual upper-crust, D'Amato is the pugnacious street fighter.

"They counter-balance each other," said Rep. Rick A. Lazio, R-N.Y. "D'Amato's colorful, very New Yorky. When he's focused on an issue, he'll work his tail off to make sure he succeeds."

Oddly enough, the two senators get along extremely well and have one of the most productive working relationships in the Senate. They have joined forces on countless local issues, most recently helping New York win a hefty allotment for mass transit funds under the highway reauthorization bill (HR2400). (CQ Weekly Report, p. 655)

Said pollster Zogby: "New Yorkers have the best of both worlds. If they want pretty, they get Moynihan. If they want to get dirt under their nails, they've got D'Amato."

In 1996, the Senate Ethics Committee cleared D'Amato of wrongdoing for any special treatment he may have received from a New York brokerage firm that earned him a one-day, stock windfall of $37,125. At the time, the brokerage firm was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and D'Amato was ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, with jurisdiction over the SEC.

Five years earlier, the Ethics Committee rebuked D'Amato for allowing his brother Armand access to his congressional staff. Armand also had used D'Amato's official Senate stationery to write the Defense Department asking for favorable consideration for one of his clients.

The committee also examined charges that D'Amato used his contacts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to steer federal housing money to his campaign contributors, but it found insufficient evidence to take action.

D'Amato's opponents have tried to use ethics against him in the past, and have failed. In 1992, Democratic Senate nominee Robert Abrams went as far as to call D'Amato a "fascist." The attack immediately backfired.

D'Amato, voice trembling and verging on tears, denounced the remark as an ethnic slur against Italian-Americans.

"His opponents get so mad at him, they spit bullets. The more he gets people wrapped up in sputtering at him, the more he wins," Lazio said.

© 1998 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.