Hizzoner In Honolulu

BY LEE DEMBART

HONOLULU-Smiling his way through Honolulu last week Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, currently playing the political charade of being a candidate for President without saying so.

Lindsay was in town officially to attend the annual convention of the National League of Cities, but it was clear from the moment he stepped off the plane that he was here to meet people, to shake hands, to appear on TV, to get his picture in the papers, and to continue the work of cementing ties with Democrats around the nation.

"For 90 days a Democrat he's not doing badly," said one of his three aides, including an advance man, who made the trip with Hizzoner.

The aides were faced with a difficult job. They had to run a campaign-like trip without giving the impression of there being a campaign in town. They handled it very well.

Though Lindsay was always accessible to the press, the aides insisted there be no press conferences.

Though arrangements had been made by local people to have Hizzoner in Honolulu speak at the University of Hawaii, the staff decided that that would be too much of overt politicking. So there was no UH speech.

At the Aloha reception on the opening night of the convention, John and Mary Lindsay took places in the center of the Sheraton Waikiki ballroom, shaking hands and smiling and small-talking with the crowds who stood four deep to meet them.

When interest flagged in one spot, the advance man discretly moved them to another side of the room, where there were new people to meet and pose for pictures with.

(Mary Lindsay, incidentally, is not among the world's foremost campaigners. She has the disconcerning habit of saying "It's nice to meet you" every time she meets you.)

Lindsay's TV appearances were uneventful. He restated his already-public positions that a change in national leadership is essential, that the cities should be our number one concern, and that he will decide in mid-January whether to enter the race for the Democratic nomination for President.

Privately, he breakfasted with Gov. Burns one morning at the Executive Mansion, hosted small gettogethers over coffee with a group of women and a group of students who had asked to meet him, and was guest of honor at a cocktail party at the Kahala home of his good friends, the Robert Midkiffs.

The party was attended by all the right people and all of the Beautiful People in Honolulu society. Also invited were just the right number of longhaired students and resident UH radicals to give the prominent guests the feeling of being very "now".

Among those present to greet Hizzoner in Honolulu, were Lt. Gov. George Ariyoshi, former Lt. Gov. Tom Gill, former Honolulu Mayor Neil Blaisdell, Sen. Donald Cling (a Burns supporter in the Senate) and Rep. Richard Wong (a Gill supporter in the House).

Also, Arthur and Catharine Murray, who did not dance, Hawaii Chief Justice William Richardson, former UH President Tom Hamilton, and Mr. and Mrs. David Eyre, editors of Honolulu magazine.

Lindsay, who was wearing white pants, a blue and white aloha shirt, a red lei, loafers and no socks (very Southampton), greeted and bantered with one guest at a time, then moved on to another. No one talked politics with Lindsay or with each other, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind why the party was being held or why he had been invited.