Seeking Independence Party Nod

Hillary, Rudy take different tacks at forum

By Elizabeth Moore - Newsday

Buffalo - Hillary Rodham Clinton coolly warned members of the state Independence Party here yesterday that while she shares their goals and wants their endorsement, she will refuse to run on their line if Pat Buchanan heads the ticket as their presidential candidate.

            A warm and relaxed New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had earlier told the party forum his record makes him a "natural fit" with its platform of term limits, campaign finance reform and a balanced budget.

            But while Giuliani said he would relish an Independence Party primary contest, which he says polls give him an edge to win, Clinton refused to commit to a primary, and later rejected the "divisive rhetoric" of leading party member Lenora Fulani, of New York City, who has the loyalty of about 25 percent of the state committee vote and is a co-chair of Buchanan's presidential campaign.

"If this party allows itself to become defined by the anti-Semitism, extremism, prejudice and intolerance of a few shrill voices of both the right and the left, you will do yourselves and our state a great disservice," Clinton told about 100 members of the state's third-largest party, who are to select a candidate at a convention in June. "I cannot and will not, as the price of any endorsement, embrace or excuse those who use hateful rhetoric."

            The forum, which Giuliani and Clinton addressed about an hour apart, was the first campaign event the two have both attended. Clinton's comments, reminiscent of her husband's repudiation of racist comments by rap singer Sister Souljah during his 1992 campaign, startled members of the party, a coalition of left, center and right political activists that recently decentralized most of its power to its local committees and is unified only by its political reform platform.

            Speaking first, Giuliani said that while at the Justice Department he had investigated campaign finance abuses, and as mayor he had introduced fiscal discipline in the city's budget and run with the party's support in prior elections. He said he backed the party's core issues of same-day voter registration, initiative and referendum powers and term limits.

            "Put aside all the political spinning," he said. "Just ask yourself between the two of us who is the more independent of the two candidates? I think I win that one hands down." Giuliani made no mention of his recent diagnosis with prostate cancer.

            Clinton, too, emphasized how close her political sympathies have lain with those same issues, adding that congressional Democrats had backed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill only to see it blocked by the Republicans.

            But she went on to raise concerns about what she called the "troubling shadow" of "internal battles" in the party, whose chairman, Frank MacKay, and five other executive committee members were ousted on procedural grounds by a judge this week in favor of past chairman Jack Essenburg.

            Asked after her speech to detail her concerns, Clinton said, "I am disturbed by and concerned about any anti-Semitic or racist or other inflammatory and divisive rhetoricI now that in the past dr. Fulani has engaged in that kind of rhetoric."

            Fulani, who had shaken hands with both candidates and led the questioning, told reporters she found those comments "slanderous" and "irresponsible," adding that Clinton is in no position to dictate what other candidates run on the Independence line.

            "I am not anti-Semitic," Fulani said, challenging Clinton to site an example. "Dr. Fulani's comments are well-known and unfortunate," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson responded later. "I think calling Jews storm troopers' for industrial capitalism' speaks for itself," he said, referring to comments Fulani made on Nov. 14, 1999 on the Fox News Channel.

            Giuliani, who had peppered his speech with references to his friendship with campaign finance reformer and former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), made no references to the party's troubles, Buchanan or Fulani. But asked about the two at a restaurant earlier in the day, he said, "She definitely does not represent my philosophy, nor does Pat Buchanan."

            MacKay, who was elected party chairman with some 93 percent of the vote at Essenberg's recall vote in February and presided over the meeting yesterday, said he expects to overturn Essenberg's challenge in court next week.

            But he warned that Clinton will have to decide whether to seek the Independence line by the time of its June convention, long before its affiliated national Reform Party selects its presidential candidates in August, adding that candidates don't run as a slate anyway.