From
Newsday
Pataki Fails on Third Line; McCall Coasts
to Win
By Andrew Metz
Albany Bureau
September 11, 2002
Gov. George Pataki's high-stakes play for the
Independence Party's allegiances narrowly failed last night,
when the two-term Republican lost a critical primary contest
against the faction's flagbearer, Thomas Golisano.
In a third-party primary that could have delivered hundreds of
thousands of votes in November, Pataki was dealt a stunning
setback by the Rochester billionaire, who had spent more than
$20 million attacking the governor and trying to retain
rank-and-file support of a party whose leadership had sided with
the governor.
The primary defeat, achieved with huge sums of money and
extremely low voter turnout, complicates Pataki's re-election
campaign against his Democratic rival, State Comptroller H. Carl
McCall, who officially became his party's candidate last night.
With almost all the precincts reporting statewide, Golisano was
holding a 6-percentage-point lead over the governor. On a day
when few came out to the polls, the margin was less than 1,000
and did not include many absentee ballots yet to be counted.
Pataki's campaign manager, Adam Stoll, said, "Tom Golisano
spent $40 million, which is about $4,000 a vote, on a
relentlessly negative campaign, and he appears to have won his
own party's nomination. We're confident Gov. Pataki will win in
November."
Golisano told supporters, "This was a close race ... What
was going on in the year 2002 in the Independence Party was that
one of the major parties wanted to take it over."
Third-party lines can add decisive edges in close general
election races, particularly in New York, where Democrats
outnumber Republicans 5-3.
Once a nemesis of the Independence Party, Pataki wooed its
leaders, hoping to neutralize Golisano and free himself to
concentrate on McCall.
But Golisano, in his third run at Pataki, was unsparing in his
attacks.
A founder of the party, four years ago he peeled away about 8
percent of the vote and in 1994 took in 4 percent.
Losing the line deals a serious setback to Pataki, keeping open
a battlefront with Golisano.
Pataki, however, is leading McCall in the most recent polls by
15 percentage points. Last night he appeared on his way to
securing the Conservative Party line, which played an important
role in his 1994 and 1998 wins.
Golisano had mounted a write-in candidacy for that party, too,
and saturated the airwaves with accusations that the governor
had abandoned his conservative roots.
But the Independence battle suddenly jazzed up a primary that
lost much of its drama a week ago, when McCall's rival, former
federal housing secretary Andrew Cuomo, dropped out of the
running. Cuomo began as the Democratic front-runner until a
series of missteps and polls predicting defeat doomed his bid.
"Tonight we stand united as Democrats to say second-best is
unacceptable in New York," said McCall, the first black
candidate nominated for governor by a major party in the state.
McCall's preferred running mate, Westchester businessman Dennis
Mehiel, also became his party's candidate for lieutenant
governor.
Pataki's pick for lieutenant governor, Mary Donohue, was ahead
of William Neild, a Golisano ally, on the Independence line.
Pataki launched a daring play at the Ross Perot-inspired party
after eight years trying to keep it at bay.
He courted its leaders, including state chairman Frank MacKay,
enrolled new voters and embraced some of the party's signature
issues, including campaign finance reform and statewide voter
initiatives.
Grappling for the roughly 220,000 registered Independence
members, he issued lawsuits and attack ads, making the battle
the costliest one over a third party in state history.
But only a faction of those voters came out for the primary,
turning what was ostensibly a race for New York's highest office
into a contest on the same scale as a village clerk election.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday,
Inc.
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