He filed noncandidacy for the 2008 general election, and subsequently resigned to become Commissioner.

The reasons for Mr. Bradley's noncandidacy, however, are more compelling.

The only way they can have their names removed from the ballot is by submitting written declarations of noncandidacy.

"The restrictions that he had placed on us - no direct contact, an absolute noncandidacy - have evaporated.

The award for the least likely venue to announce a noncandidacy goes to Governor Cuomo.

But because Mr. Bush has a commanding lead in the early polls, his noncandidacy is dominating the race.

Back to 1968, when his romantic noncandidacy, transformed into an official effort only at the convention, laid the groundwork for his future.

Then, all eyes turned to Thursday night, and the Governor's appearance on the same radio call-in show on which he announced his noncandidacy in 1987.

"We chose to put our family first," said Dan Quayle, announcing his noncandidacy for President in 1996, "and to forgo the disruption to our lives."

But his client must be "doing something right," Mr. Kaye said, adding that some Presidential polls gave the Senator 8 to 10 points despite his noncandidacy.

TO gauge the potentially huge repercussions of a Colin L. Powell candidacy for President, consider the reach of his noncandidacy.

Throughout the South, the announcement of noncandidacy by Senator Nunn of Georgia, delivered on Aug. 27, sounded much like a starting gun for Democratic Presidential politics.

That is a prelude to a formal announcement at a news conference when a candidate really goes out on the limb - not that he or she cannot crawl back to safety and noncandidacy.

Lest anybody interpret his remarks as a flat declaration of noncandidacy, however, Mr. Cuomo later declined to equate them with a pledge to serve his full four-year gubernatorial term.

I WOULD LIKE to take this solemn opportunity to declare my noncandidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America.

Secretary Kemp agrees, and he is pushing the Administration to make bolder proposals over the next few weeks and months, especially in light of Ross Perot's announcement of noncandidacy last week.

Mr. Cuomo is unequivocal about one perceived consequence of noncandidacy: He is frustrated and even furious that reporters are more interested in a hypothetical campaign than in the condition of the country.

Last month, an article in The New York Times on Mr. Cuomo's visit to California focused on his noncandidacy, rather than on the substance of well-received remarks, the gist of which he had delivered before.

While Mr. Cuomo scurries around the country in the most aggressive, campaign-style noncandidacy in history, Mr. Bradley stays at home, listens to his internal clock ticking and demurs: "I will know when I am ready."

For his part, Mr. Cuomo, who gave an hourlong address to the National Association of Broadcasters' convention here, expressed relief today when reporters asked him if he was glad that his declarations of noncandidacy were being taken seriously.

His Trust Isn't Blind Moe Biller, president of the American Postal Workers Union and a supporter of Gov. Mario M. Cuomo's noncandidacy last year, is about as skeptical as the leaders come.

"I think it would have been useful for him to present his views to the N.A.A.C.P." His friends and associates insist that General Powell is not acting out of a taste for the limelight, nor trying purposefully to stir up interest in his noncandidacy.

Advisers to these candidates acknowledge that they are so desperate to catch on - and so frustrated that Mr. Bush's noncandidacy has catapulted him ahead of the field in early polls - that they believe the only way to get noticed is to go after the one politician who is sure to get noticed.

Partly on its own, and partly orchestrated by Mr. Bush's political strategist, Karl Rove, the bandwagon began to move: governors dropped by to pay their respects, speaking invitations poured in, policy experts and Republican gurus came by to bless the noncandidacy, and abruptly he found himself under much greater scrutiny than ever before.