BETTY CORTINA Herald Staff Writer

The doubtful Hialeah voter called Raul Martinez 's headquarters last week with just one question: Would someone please clarify the convicted mayor's legal problem? A campaign worker patiently made Martinez's case: Yes, the mayor was convicted on corruption charges, but he's innocent. Yes, his case is on appeal, but he can win. Yes, he was suspended, but he might not be removed from office if elected again.

Just days before Hialeah picks a new mayor, Raul Martinez finds himself answering questions like the one from the worried voter.

He's grappling with this issue: How do you run for public office if you're a convicted felon ?

Many times, Martinez picks up the phone himself to explain the issue and reassure the caller.

"I don't mind the question," Martinez said. "I actually like it, because I get an opportunity to tell my side of the story."

Longtime political foe Nilo Juri, who faces him Tuesday in a runoff, isn't shy about the conviction issue, either.

"With your vote, you will tell everyone that Hialeah will not tolerate a convicted felon as its mayor," Juri wrote in a campaign mailing last week. "With your vote, you will tell your police officers they will not vote for a convicted racketeer."

In Dade's second-largest city -- plagued by problems with zoning, flooding and crime -- the heart of the mayoral campaign is really Martinez's conviction on charges of shaking down developers.

The issue has managed to bring together three longtime political opponents, vowing to fight for a common cause: to keep a felon out of the mayor's office. Acting Mayor Julio Martinez and Councilman Salvatore D'Angelo, who lost their bids for mayor in the first round last week, threw their support behind Juri.

"It would be a disaster to have a criminal as mayor," Julio Martinez said. "Nilo and I have had political differences, but we agree on that."

If Raul Martinez loses his appeal, he could be behind the bars of a federal prison six months from now. This is, plainly, a delicate issue with the voters.

"Sometimes I bring it up myself, because I know people are thinking about it and wondering," Martinez said. "But sometimes when I start talking about it, people will stop me and say, 'Listen, there's no problem. We don't believe the charges.' "

In 1991, Martinez was convicted in federal court on six counts of extorting money and land from developers in Hialeah. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and is out on bond awaiting appeal. He's working as vice president of marketing for a liquor-store chain.

To this day Martinez maintains his innocence, saying the corruption charges are bogus and were politically motivated. He says former U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen started the investigation because he wanted to hurt Martinez, who was thinking about running for a congressional seat. Lehtinen was merely trying to protect the seat for his wife, Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, Martinez insists. Lehtinen has long denied the charge.

Still, that's the theory Martinez espouses on the campaign trail. And people buy it. The words "trial" and "jury" and "conviction" are not often mentioned.

On a recent afternoon, Martinez walked outside a factory where workers were on their lunch break. He shook more than a dozen hands.

Before he could introduce himself to one woman, she interrupted him to say she and the six members of her family were going to vote for him -- no matter what.

"You can count on us," she said.

"A lot of people don't believe the charges," Martinez said. "They believe me when I say I was railroaded."

As Martinez drives down a Hialeah street in his red Lexus decorated with one campaign bumper sticker, a stranger honks his car horn and shakes his fist in the air in a sign of solidarity.

Martinez's charismatic personality helps, too. The towering, baby-faced politician, always quick with a one-liner, can charm a crowd in minutes and can make people forget about his legal problem. Instead he reminds people of the good things he did, starting virtually every sentence with "when I was in office . . . ."

He points to an economic boom, to fiscal stability, to cleaner streets.

He has hundreds of political supporters and more than $140,000 in his campaign account. Almost every night, his campaign offices is filled with workers. At a recent post- primary party, more than 1,000 people stuffed themselves into the headquarters to party and wish him luck in the runoff.

"You couldn't even walk because there were so many people," Martinez said. "At this point, even if I lost the elections, I have to be happy with the support everyone has already given me."

But his political foes accuse Martinez of making himself out to be the victim. They point to his shady side and beg people not to "tarnish" the city's reputation by electing a felon . And, they say, the city wasn't in as great a shape as Martinez wants people to think.

"This could hurt the city," Juri said. "Do you think a business owner is going to want to invest in Hialeah if he knows the city government could extort him?"

This week, Juri and workers from the D'Angelo camp met for more than an hour to discuss how to thwart Martinez's victim image during this last and crucial week of campaigning.

"We have to make sure people know this man isn't a poor little victim," said Fred Rojas, a D'Angelo campaign worker. "The man drives a Lexus, has a wine cellar in his home. He's rich and he's a crook."

The group determined they would have to focus more on city issues this week. And during a Friday radio debate the strategy clearly came through. Martinez and Juri -- who once almost came to blows -- were congenial, polite, nice to each other.

The corruption charges did come up, but Juri said they're not personal attacks. They're legitimate issues.

"Those are real issues that people need to be concerned about," Juri said. "He may not be able to serve his term. He may have to go to jail. He doesn't know where he is going to be in the next year. And do people want another interim mayor?"

In his mailings, Juri appeals to voters' conscience, saying the reputation of Hialeah, long tainted by political scandal, is in their hands.

"People have to think about what they're doing," he said. "Do they want change or do they want to go back to what they had before?"