By FREDRIC U. DICKER
State Editor ALBANY
January 06, 1998

U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's campaign revived mob charges against Geraldine Ferraro yesterday, contending she associated with a mob-linked union leader just 16 months ago.

D'Amato's operatives cited reports showing Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) President, Arthur Coia,co-hosted an elegant birthday party for Ferraro at the Democratic National Convention in August 1996, just days after the GOP-led Congress held hearings on Coia's alleged ties to the Mafia.

An FBI memo that surfaced at the hearing called Coia a mob "puppet." A month later, Ferraro was a featured speaker at LIUNA's annual convention in Las Vegas, where Coia presented her with a gift, published reports show.

Also, in 1994, Ferraro, who at the time was U.S. ambassador designate to the United Nations, was a guest speaker at a high-powered dinner honoring Coia in Warwick, R.I.

The 1994 FBI memo warned that Coia, a major Democratic fund raiser who later was one of President Clinton's Lincoln Bedroom guests, was a "criminal associate of the New England Patriarca organized crime family" and was under federal investigation.

The Justice Department also charged that organized crime had dominated Coia's 750,000-member union for decades.

Ferraro campaign manager David Eichenbaum accused D'Amato's aides of "deciding to jump right out of the gate with a smear campaign" against the newly announced Democratic candidate. Eichenbaum defended Ferraro's association with the LIUNA, saying, "whatever accusations may have been made, it is a very active union right now and supports a lot of candidates across the board. "There has been a problem and charges against this person (Coia), but Gerry felt that should not have precluded her from giving a speech, from being at a reception in her honor."

Eichenbaum cited allegations that D'Amato had been linked to mob-connected individuals and said, "Al D'Amato may be the last kind of person to make this kind of charge."

Ferraro defended her contacts with Coia on her CNN "Crossfire" show last year, saying of the union chief: "He has not been accused of anything with organized crime. "She insisted yesterday that her 1993 confirmation by the U.S. Senate for a post on the United Nations Human Rights Commission resolved any questions about her associations or her family's business dealings. "If I am good enough to hold the top security clearance that this country gives, and if I'm good enough to be unanimously confirmed by the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate ... then I should think that those charges will have been laid to rest," Ferraro said.

The FBI memo was drafted in response to a White House request for a preliminary check of Coia, whom President Clinton was considering appointing to a presidential commission on competitiveness.

Coia, who has repeatedly denied any mob links, didn't get the post. At the same time, Justice Department probers fretted over an invitation to Hillary Rodham Clinton to address LIUNA's 1994 convention in light of their "plans to portray him (Coia) as a mob puppet," according to an internal memo released by House Republicans.

Mrs. Clinton rejected the invitation. She spoke at the 1995 convention. Ex-White House counsel Abner Mikva told GOP investigators he told former top Clinton aide Harold Ickes to tell Mrs. Clinton to avoid "one-on-one contact" with Coia before she gave the 1995 speech.