Former Aide Sasso Still Advises Dukakis

BOSTON--John Sasso, who resigned as top aide to Mass Gov. Michael S. Dukakis after embarrassing the Massachusetts governor by attacking a rival presidential candidate, is still in the promotion business.

He's now trying to sell cars, not candidates. But he keeps in touch with Dukakis and the successful campaign operation he assembled.

"Mike and I are good friends, and, as he has said, we still talk from time to time, discuss things," Sasso said in a brief telephone conversation this week. "But I have no active role with the campaign."

He declined to discuss topics of his discussions with Dukakis except to say they include campaign-related issues but have not included talk of potential running mates for Dukakis, the likely Democratic nominee.

Sasso, now working at a Boston advertising and public relations firm, declined further comment, saying he is not granting interviews about the campaign. He is helping the firm prepare its bid for a lucrative General Motors contract.

He resigned his job as manager of the Dukakis campaign after admitting he gave reporters an "attack video" that helped drive Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden from the campaign.

One Democratic candidate, Rep Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), in a desperation tactic prior to the Super Tuesday contacts, put an advertisement on the air that said, in part, "Mike Dukakis smeared Joe Biden...and now he's attempting to smear Dick Gephardt."

Dukakis is ever-cautious and aides say there has been no discussion of bringing Sasso back if Dukakis wins the nomination, which appears inevitable. A Sasso presence in the campaign would hamper any Dukakis effort to criticize George Bush on the alleged "sleaze factor" of Reagan administration officials accused of wrongdoing.

"John Sasso is a friend of the governor and has every right to talk to him as does any citizen," Bush spokesman Peter Teeley said yesterday.

Sasso helped Dukakis return from political exile four years after he was voted out of the governor's office in 1978. Sasso also was among the first to urge Dukakis to run for president.

The former aide, who took a leave from his State House post to manage former New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro's unsuccessful 1984 vice presidential campaign, brought in veterans from her staff and that of former Vice President Walter Mondale when he assembled the Dukakis campaign.

But he was forced to quit after admitting he gave reporters a video tape showing Biden quoting liberally without attribution from a British politician's speech. Those reports led to a string of disclosures which forced Biden from the presidential race.

The leak came at a time when Dukakis was urging rivals in the then-crowded Democratic field to wage positive campaigns. Sasso acknowledged his role in the episide only after Dukakis said he did not believe his campaign was responsible for distributing the tapes.

After initially suggesting he would not fire his closest adviser, aides say a despondent Dukakis acknowledged that "John has to go." Dukakis promoted Sasso's assistant, Susan Estrich, to campaign manager.

Estrich, who worked with Sasso in 1984 and is a member of the Democratic National Committee, also consults periodically with her friend and former boss.

"I chat with him occasionally about how things are going," Estrich said. "But I think John realizes that the strength of this campaign is the candidate."

Some Dukakis aides say privately that they would not be surprised to see Sasso back at Dukakis' side if he won the November election.

Dukakis met Sasso a few days after the 1978 loss, keeping a promise he had made to assist a referendum drive that Sasso managed. Sasso, impressed that Dukakis had kept his word despite the crushing defeat, offered to help Dukakis if he ever ran for office again.

He managed the 1982 campaign victory and became Dukakis' chief aide at the Statehouse, where he was credited with helping Dukakis mend fences with legislators and interest groups alienated in his first term.

After returning to Dukakis' staff following the Ferraro campaign Sasso and another gubernatorial aides urged Dukakis to run for president, saying his optimism and record would offer the Democratic Party a fresh alternative to the "doom and gloom" approach Sasso blamed for the crushing defeats of Mondale in 1984 and President Carter in 1980.