Picture a handsome candidate, youthful with a touch of gray, a respected former congressman running on what the polls say are all the right issues and taking on what he calls a corrupt, inept status quo.
New Yorkers “see a government in chronic political and financial crisis and they fear what’s coming down the pike,” Republican candidate for governor Rick Lazio told The Associated Press. “I think it’s just exasperation, a sense of distrust with Albany. I think they are overwhelmed.”
Reams of polls, news reports and the corner bar confirm that.
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So why is Lazio, the most articulate critic of Albany’s dysfunction under Democratic control and a national figure in fighting a proposed mosque at ground zero, still battling for his party’s nomination that had seemed a lock 12 months ago?
“On paper, Rick Lazio is the right kind of Republican to have a chance to win in the wrong kind of state for his party,” said Lawrence Levy, a political commentator and head of Hofstra University’s National Center on Suburban Studies.
Lazio’s campaign comes as New York’s Democratic party is at is strongest, holding every statewide office and the both chambers of the Legislature, along with the patronage jobs, campaign resources from unions, and boots on the ground that such power wields in Albany.
Democrats also hold a near 2 to 1 voter enrollment advantage, with Republicans no longer in clear control of upstate, Long Island and suburban bases, further weakening the organization.
“Rick Lazio was a terrific congressman,” said Levy, the former Newsday columnist who has followed Lazio’s career on Long Island. “Lazio made a name for himself in bringing affordable housing to the suburbs … he is an experienced campaigner who won by large margins in a swing area.”
Yet Thursday’s Quinnipiac University poll has Lazio, the designee of party leaders, with a 12 point lead over conservative Carl Paladino, a political novice courting the tea party movement of angry, disaffected voters. The poll found Lazio’s 47 to 35 percent lead “shaky” because half the Republican voters polled said they might change their mind and Lazio’s supporters were less certain of their choice than Paladino’s.
As the Sept. 14 primary draws near, Paladino, 64, promises to unleash millions of dollars in TV ads that Lazio, 52, can’t match.
“I’ve been focused on Andrew Cuomo,” Lazio says, quickly changing topic. “Right now, it’s about name recognition. And Cuomo has obviously been spending a lot of money in advertising and he’s the incumbent for the last four years as attorney general. Those will be exactly the disadvantages that will lead to his defeat in November.”
But first, there’s the matter of Paladino.
“He’s been spending vastly more money in advertising,” Lazio said. “That’s the issue. But our numbers are far stronger than what the poll showed and we’ve got a double-digit lead and all around the state we have incredible strength … I am absolutely confident we will win by a healthy margin.”
Lazio has most Republican county leaders backing him and the endorsement of the Conservative Party critical for Republicans running statewide, but the pro-choice former Wall Street lobbyist is better suited for a general election and needs conservative Republicans in the primary that is expected to attract the right-leaning party faithful.
His credentials include a hard cap on the growth of local property taxes at 2.5 percent a year. His early and fervent call for Cuomo to investigate the funding sources of the mosque project have drawn free, national exposure for his opposition view that is shared by most New Yorkers, especially Republicans.
But with $600,000 in his campaign account as of the August filings, compared to Paladino’s pledge to spend $10 million of his own and Cuomo’s campaign account of more than $23 million, Lazio still needs to reintroduce himself to New Yorkers. He’s still dogged by his 2000 U.S. Senate race against then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton when, in a TV debate, he strode to her podium to try to force her to sign a pledge, a move that backfired and painted him as a bully.
“People who are listening right now do realize I have the ideal background to turn this state around,” he said. “We’re not hearing people jumping up and down saying, ‘Yes, we want four more years of that (Democratic) team.’”
To fight the frustration of underfunding and getting his voice heard, he digs back to his past for a defining moment.
“It’s partly how you grew up,” he said. “I look at my late Dad, who was a major force in my life and never one to give up.”
And then there was Ronald Reagan who, during his run for president in 1979, came to Long Island. Years before had met Rick Lazio’s father, Tony, a Republican leader.
But Tony Lazio had suffered a massive stroke so his son wrote a note to Reagan and handed it to security, asking for a mention of his Dad in the stump speech. Later, Tony listened, and laboriously said “no” when Rick asked if anything special happened.
“I was disappointed. Long odds, but I took my shot,” Rick Lazio remembered. “The next morning the phone rang. My Mom answered … he said, ‘This is Ronald Reagan. It breaks my heart to tell you I didn’t read your son’s note until I was back on the plane, could you please put the phone up to your husband’s ear so I can just tell him to hang in there and fight back because we need him.’”
“He never gave up,” Lazio said of his father.
“I’ve seen my neighbors and friends and colleagues go through a very difficult few years in terms of losing their jobs and moving out of the state,” Lazio said. “I think it’s incumbent for good people to not just yell at the TV … you have to stand up and step up.”
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By MICHAEL GORMLEY,Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
