Bono Hears Call of the Senate Again : Politics: Palm Springs mayor ruled out a bid last year. He says he’s considering running for Cranston’s seat in 1992.

The beat goes on.

Yes, Sonny Bono, who traded on his fame as the mop-topped singing partner of ex-wife Cher to win a stint as mayor of Palm Springs, is once again leaning toward running for the U.S. Senate.

As he said Tuesday, in perfect California-speak: “It’s just one of those things where you have to kind of go for it.”

You may have heard this before, as Republican Bono flirted with a 1992 Senate campaign last year before deciding against running. Now he’s back, and he says that if he decides to run he will mount an outsider’s, damn-the-system campaign. A formal decision is expected next week.

“What I offer is that America kind of go back to the politics that originally were. And that’s where a guy can go out and run for office and get elected, without being an heir apparent or without having to join a machine,” Bono said in a telephone interview from his Palm Springs home.

Bono, “a guy” only if the standard is a Palm Springs millionaire, gained his most recent notice for a book seen as critical of his ex-wife--and which he says will help his campaign by explaining him to voters. Now 56, the father of two small children and some years past his star prime, Bono acknowledged that his campaign would require a comprehensive selling job on California voters.

“I’m going to have to establish my credibility between now and (Election Day),” he said. “Here in town, I’m not Sonny Bono the celebrity or Sonny of Sonny and Cher. I’m definitely Sonny the mayor. I haven’t had that exposure on a statewide basis. It’s again going to be my task to acquaint people with what I have done.”

One Republican strategist who has talked to Bono said the entertainer-mayor expects to be the butt of late-night jokes.

“He realizes his announcement will be cannon fodder for Jay Leno and Carson and Arsenio,” said the strategist. “He’ll do very well or crash and burn. There’ll be no in-between.”

The outsider’s theme being sung by Bono is a popular one this campaign season, with variations being delivered by a handful of Democratic presidential candidates and a few running for the two Senate seats to be decided in California next year.

Bono said that if he runs, it will be for the six-year seat being vacated by Democrat Alan Cranston. Also in the running for the GOP nomination for that seat are U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell of Stanford and Los Angeles television and radio commentator Bruce Herschensohn. Former Olympics czar and major league baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth is also reported to be considering the race.

On the Democratic side of that race are U.S. Rep. Barbara Boxer of Marin County and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy. Another member of Congress, Mel Levine of Los Angeles, is expected to join them later this year.

Without detailing specific differences, Bono said he, Herschensohn and Campbell were “day and night, just as people.” He described himself as against more taxes, for abortion rights and favoring military action against Iraq if it does not bow to U.S. demands.

“On some issues, believe it or not, I would be more conservative,” he said. “But as far as free thinking, I would probably be the most free thinker.”