■ Moving right along, pollsters are already at work on 1996. Frank I. Luntz polled three hundred New Hampshirites in Houston and came up with James Baker as the favorite (30 per cent), followed by Jack Kemp (23) and Pat Buchanan (18). Vice President Dan Quayle scored a mere 5 per cent; other also-rans were Massachusetts Gov. William Weld (4), Dick Cheney (3), Phil Gramm (3) . . . . Which is real, the bounce or the fallback? Next big popularity tests will be debates between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Commission on Presidential Debates has released schedule: Sept. 22 at Michigan State University; Oct. 4 at University of San Diego; Oct. 15 at University of Richmond. A Gore-Quayle debate has been set for Sept. 29 in Louisville. . . . Not included in press packet given out to reporters covering Clinton’s announcement of candidacy: sentence from a speech he gave at Democratic dinner in Sioux City, Iowa, addressed to George McGovern, for whom Clinton worked in 1972: “History’s borne you out, and I’m still proud to have worked for you.” . . . Ross Who? popped up again plugging a quickie paperback detailing the economic plan he hadn’t produced before his dramatic departure from race. In-and-out Perot campaign manager Ed Rollins predicted a Perot candidacy would be resurrected in October. . . . Asked on Today if he would run “again” if neither party offered a satisfactory program, he replied: “I wouldn’t have a choice [if my volunteers wanted it]. I do belong to them, and it would be their decision, whatever they feel is appropriate.” Read his lips? . . . Perot remains on ballot in more than half the states, and petition drive to put him on in New York has revved up again. But New York Times discovered that volunteers there aren’t: they are people who answered NYT classified ad: “part time petitioner. Work for political campaign, $10 per hr.” . . . ABC/Washington Post poll finds hypothetical Perot support shrinking. Three days after he quit the race, 25 per cent polled said they would have voted for him; now only 17 per cent do.
■ Antagonism toward Congress is not just Republican rhetoric. At least 15 states are expected to have congressional term-limit initiative on ballot in November. California has a proposition limiting representatives to 6 years and senators to 12. Two California Democratic representatives, Don Edwards and George E. Brown Jr., began serving on Jan. 3, 1963. . . . Michigan ballot will propose same limit. Powerful Michigan Rep. John Dingell (D.), chairman of Energy and Commerce Committee, was originally elected Dec. 13, 1955. . . . Wyoming, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Montana also have term limits on ballot; Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska have propositions awaiting certification; Ohio and North Dakota are still collecting signatures. . . . Mario Cuomo issued magisterial rebuke to Elizabeth Holtzman and Robert Abrams for mentioning charges (first investigated, found plausible, during 1984 presidential campaign; recently revived by Village Voice) that Geraldine Ferraro had mob ties. Ferraro, Holtzman, and Abrams are contesting, along with Al Sharpton, for Democratic senatorial nomination to oppose GOP incumbent Al D’Amato. Cuomo expressed his “disappointment” at “the kind of thing I would have expected from the Republicans.”
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