New York's Shrinking Candidate;Ronald Lauder, the Cosmetics Heir, Spending a Lot, Speaking Little

Ronald S. Lauder, heir to a cosmetics fortune, former ambassador to Austria and candidate for mayor of New York City, had just finished a speech to an education group when a handful of reporters surrounded him in the hallway.

Lauder had vowed to replace Schools Chancellor Richard Green, only to be reminded that the mayor doesn't have that power. He tried again, declaring that Green had accomplished little in "the last couple of years," obviously unaware that the new chancellor had been in office barely 12 months.

As the questions continued, a Lauder aide nervously pressed…