<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Lazio Leaps Into Campaign
Spurned in '99, now life of party
By WILLIAM GOLDSCHLAG
Daily News Senior National Correspondent
ith Gov. Pataki's blessing, Rep. Rick Lazio leaped into the Senate race yesterday and began an 11-day sprint to secure the Republican nomination and launch a catchup campaign against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I will be a candidate for the United States Senate," Lazio said in a written statement.
Arriving for a cancer forum in Oakdale, L.I., last night, Lazio said, "I am looking forward to this race with enthusiasm."
He is expected to make an announcement speech in his district today.
The state's Republican powerbrokers shooed away the 42-year-old Suffolk County moderate last year to make room for Mayor Giuliani. But with the mayor out, Lazio is the runaway favorite for his party's backing at its convention May 30 in Buffalo.
"It's a done deal — Rick Lazio is the candidate," said Kieran Mahoney, a GOP campaign consultant close to Pataki. "Everybody I've talked to is for Lazio."
Pataki made his support public last night in a CNN interview. He said Lazio has "earned the right to be our next senator" and called himself a strong supporter of the congressman.
Earlier, Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), who has been pushing his own candidacy, said, "I've been around long enough to know when the stage is being set" for Lazio. "Pataki controls the votes at the convention, so he picks the nominee," King added.
Though Lazio maintained a scrupulous silence while the mayor agonized about his decisions, he quietly assembled a campaign organization. He tapped Mike Murphy, a mastermind of Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, as his chief strategist and had several advance men ready to spring into action for a statewide blitz.
Republicans were of two minds about whether they could win without Giuliani. His replacement won't be as well-known and may not be as well-financed but won't have his baggage, either.
And the GOP candidate will still have the First Lady to kick around — a money sport on the GOP fund-raising circuit.
"We will unite behind a strong candidate, who will beat Hillary Clinton and her belief in big government," Pataki said.
But the atmosphere among Washington GOP powerbrokers watching the nation's marquee Senate race seemed uniformly funereal. The sense was that there is luck, good luck and the luck of the Clintons, and that now it's the First Lady's race to lose — and she probably won't.
A top Republican consultant with strong ties to the New York party said Lazio would start the race with a large stature gap.
"Hillary and Rudy are just two such incredibly pungent people that Lazio is going to pale by comparison, no matter how good a race he runs," the source glumly noted.
New York Republicans were more upbeat.
"I quite frankly think that Hillary Rodham Clinton's nightmare has occurred," said Rep. Tom Reynolds of Buffalo.
She's been banking on running against Giuliani and his abrasive personality for months, and "now a candidate far different from Rudy has emerged," Reynolds said.
A Long Island Democrat doubted Clinton would succeed succeed at portraying Lazio as a Newt Gingrich Republican because the congressman had earned credibility in his district as a moderate.
"Lazio tends to be attractive to Democrats on Long Island," the source said. "He has the seat that [Democrat] Tom Downey held for 20 years. I tell ya, as an active Democrat, I have a tough time figuring out what we're going to hit him with."
With Joe Mahoney, Thomas M. DeFrank, Timothy Burger, Robert Gearty and Richard Sisk[/quote]
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John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
www.cphv.com
Spurned in '99, now life of party
By WILLIAM GOLDSCHLAG
Daily News Senior National Correspondent
ith Gov. Pataki's blessing, Rep. Rick Lazio leaped into the Senate race yesterday and began an 11-day sprint to secure the Republican nomination and launch a catchup campaign against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I will be a candidate for the United States Senate," Lazio said in a written statement.
Arriving for a cancer forum in Oakdale, L.I., last night, Lazio said, "I am looking forward to this race with enthusiasm."
He is expected to make an announcement speech in his district today.
The state's Republican powerbrokers shooed away the 42-year-old Suffolk County moderate last year to make room for Mayor Giuliani. But with the mayor out, Lazio is the runaway favorite for his party's backing at its convention May 30 in Buffalo.
"It's a done deal — Rick Lazio is the candidate," said Kieran Mahoney, a GOP campaign consultant close to Pataki. "Everybody I've talked to is for Lazio."
Pataki made his support public last night in a CNN interview. He said Lazio has "earned the right to be our next senator" and called himself a strong supporter of the congressman.
Earlier, Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), who has been pushing his own candidacy, said, "I've been around long enough to know when the stage is being set" for Lazio. "Pataki controls the votes at the convention, so he picks the nominee," King added.
Though Lazio maintained a scrupulous silence while the mayor agonized about his decisions, he quietly assembled a campaign organization. He tapped Mike Murphy, a mastermind of Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, as his chief strategist and had several advance men ready to spring into action for a statewide blitz.
Republicans were of two minds about whether they could win without Giuliani. His replacement won't be as well-known and may not be as well-financed but won't have his baggage, either.
And the GOP candidate will still have the First Lady to kick around — a money sport on the GOP fund-raising circuit.
"We will unite behind a strong candidate, who will beat Hillary Clinton and her belief in big government," Pataki said.
But the atmosphere among Washington GOP powerbrokers watching the nation's marquee Senate race seemed uniformly funereal. The sense was that there is luck, good luck and the luck of the Clintons, and that now it's the First Lady's race to lose — and she probably won't.
A top Republican consultant with strong ties to the New York party said Lazio would start the race with a large stature gap.
"Hillary and Rudy are just two such incredibly pungent people that Lazio is going to pale by comparison, no matter how good a race he runs," the source glumly noted.
New York Republicans were more upbeat.
"I quite frankly think that Hillary Rodham Clinton's nightmare has occurred," said Rep. Tom Reynolds of Buffalo.
She's been banking on running against Giuliani and his abrasive personality for months, and "now a candidate far different from Rudy has emerged," Reynolds said.
A Long Island Democrat doubted Clinton would succeed succeed at portraying Lazio as a Newt Gingrich Republican because the congressman had earned credibility in his district as a moderate.
"Lazio tends to be attractive to Democrats on Long Island," the source said. "He has the seat that [Democrat] Tom Downey held for 20 years. I tell ya, as an active Democrat, I have a tough time figuring out what we're going to hit him with."
With Joe Mahoney, Thomas M. DeFrank, Timothy Burger, Robert Gearty and Richard Sisk[/quote]
------------------
John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
www.cphv.com
