ALBANY - A Rochester billionaire said Tuesday he will challenge Gov. George E. Pataki's bid for the tiny but influential Independence Party nomination, a campaign that could pose trouble for the governor's attempt to win a third term.

B. Thomas Golisano, who spent $13 million of his own money in an unsuccessful 1998 gubernatorial bid, is expected to spend even more this year. The campaign is expected to focus heavily on the upstate economy - an issue that many Republicans worry will eat into Pataki's upstate support.

"This is a done deal," Golisano said in an interview with The Buffalo News. He confirmed his candidacy after months of intense speculation within state political circles. He is expected in Buffalo this afternoon after appearances in Albany and Syracuse to formally announce his candidacy.

The founder of Paychex, a successful payroll processing company, Golisano said he will make the lagging upstate economy, particularly in the Buffalo-to-Albany corridor, a major theme of his campaign. Political observers expect him to spend millions on television ads upstate attacking the governor's economic, fiscal and education policies. The move will force Pataki to spend more political energy upstate after many months of actively wooing downstate voters, who traditionally vote Democratic.

The 60-year-old businessman is confident he will be able to force a primary with Pataki on the Independence Party line when the party's leadership meets this month in Brooklyn for its nominating convention. He said he also has been getting many pleas from Conservative Party members asking him to consider running on their line.

Pataki has been expected to be that party's sole candidate, but Golisano said he is actively considering a bid on that line. He also said he has not closed the door on interest expressed by some backers in his trying to get on the Green Party line. And as a final strategy, Golisano said he is looking at a process to collect enough signatures - 15,000 - to create a new ballot line for himself in November.

Capitol insiders Tuesday night speculated that Pataki might try to close on a state budget deal today to try to divert attention from Golisano's campaign announcement. Pataki will be running on the Republican and Conservative party lines, but he has been actively wooing Independence Party leaders for their backing. In New York, unlike other states, votes collected by major-party candidates on minor-party lines also count.

Though popular in polls, Pataki has left many voters with mixed feelings about whether he should seek a third term.

Privately, many Democrats are gleeful over Golisano's candidacy. They believe he will end up stealing votes - particularly among upstate swing voters in places such as Erie County - from Pataki in the general election. Some Republicans insist Golisano will eat into the support for whichever Democrat - Comptroller H. Carl McCall or Andrew Cuomo - emerges from the primary.

"I think Golisano in the race ultimately hurts Pataki slightly more than the Democrats," said John Zogby, a Utica pollster. In a close race, that could cost the governor a third term, observers say.

But Golisano, in a wide-ranging interview in which he blasted the state's two-party system of government, made it clear his focus is on the governor. And he believes he can win. "I wouldn't go through all this just to make it easier for someone else," he said.

Golisano criticized what he said is Pataki's coziness with union leaders who have helped contribute to state budgets that soar above the inflation rates.

He said high taxes continue to drive upstate businesses out of state and said Pataki has moved "to the left" on a range of social issues. He said Pataki has failed the state when it comes to education, particularly in cities where dropout rates are soaring and test scores are limping along.

Pataki said, "My focus has been on making sure that we run the state well and that this state be in the best position that it can be." Golisano said he will make a major issue out of what he said are Pataki's ties to special-interest groups that contribute to Pataki's campaign. He noted the influx of gambling-industry money to Pataki last year at a time when the state, at Pataki's urging, expanded gambling opportunities at the greatest level in state history.

Golisano criticized a state government that "encourages its people to gamble." But he stopped short of saying Pataki should not have made a deal with the Seneca Nation of Indians to bring casinos to Western New York. However, he said, voters should have been given a say whether or not gambling should be expanded.

Republicans and some Independence Party leaders who support Pataki say they are unfazed by Golisano's entry. "I think Golisano will be lucky to get on the ballot," said GOP consultant Jack Cookfair.

Frank MacKay, the Independence Party chairman who believes Pataki has the backing of most party leaders, suggested Golisano's personal profits are his real motivation for running. "Every time he runs, Paychex's stock skyrockets. It's a great advertising campaign for Paychex," MacKay said. He said Golisano is motivated by another factor: "He despises Pataki - and he certainly would like to take a run from the right of Pataki and help whoever the Democratic opponent would be."

But Golisano dismisses such claims, insisting most large shareholders in his firm would rather not see the company chairman on the political stage. As for any personal dislike for Pataki, Golisano, who won 8 percent of the vote in 1998, said, "I think George Pataki is a nice guy."

(5/1/2002)
     - By Tom Precious, The Buffalo News

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