The Rising Star from Queens

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In 1974 her cousin Nicholas Ferraro, then Queens district attorney, gave her a job as an assistant prosecutor. She ran the special victims bureau, handling cases of child abuse and domestic violence so brutal and disturbing that she was unable to sleep at night. While on duty, however, Ferraro was a tough and effective prosecutor. "All the cops loved her," recalls Nick Ferraro. After four years, she was emotionally drained but politically invigorated: the experience, Ferraro says, made her liberal on social issues. She quit and ran successfully for Congress under the slogan FINALLY, A TOUGH DEMOCRAT.

She and her husband live in a comfortable Tudor-style house in the genteel Forest Hills Gardens section of Queens. They also maintain a beach house on Fire Island and a winter retreat in St. Croix. A full-time housekeeper-cook relieves Ferraro of the more onerous domestic chores, but she clings ritualistically to her weekly grocery shopping. The couple's three children, ages 22, 20 and 17, attended expensive prep schools (Choate, Spence) and private colleges (Brown, Middlebury). Ferraro, who flies home from her small Washington apartment every chance she gets, is very close to her husband of 24 years. Tall, stolid and implacably calm, Zaccaro is a steadying influence on his peripatetic wife. He overcame initial objections to her career ("I was real domineering then, but I've changed a lot"), and now radiates pride, escorting her silently but genially to the myriad banquets and functions that crowd her calendar.

"Gerri passes all the tests," says Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, a Connecticut Democrat. "She is photogenic, she is bright, she has worked, she has brought up children, she is the right age." But is she qualified to be Vice President? Ferraro is the first to admit that she is being considered mainly because of her gender, not her qualifications. But she adds, "If I weren't capable of doing the job, I wouldn't be talked about." Naysayers bemoan her lack of expertise in arms control and foreign policy. Ferraro feels the Budget Committee has been a crash course on the economy ("I can debate that with anyone"), and working on the Democratic platform has refined her views on other domestic issues. A trip this year to Central America produced strong doubts about U.S. policy there ("We're just going about it all wrong"), and she returned from the Middle East with her pro-Israel views reinforced.

Ferraro wants the vice-presidential nomination, but she is careful not to seek it too hard. Facing a congressional election in November, she devotes several days a week to trekking through her old neighborhood, popping in at every function from bar association luncheons to meetings of retired postal carriers. Whenever a bubblingly optimistic host introduces her as "our next Vice President," Ferraro grins winningly and soft-pedals her chances. "I'm truly most concerned about one thing," she says, "and that's beating Ronald Reagan. If a woman on the ticket would make a stronger ticket, I'm willing to do it."

No matter what happens at the Democratic Convention, Ferraro stands to gain. All the talk about the vice presidency has enhanced her chances of a successful run against New York's Republican