Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: New York Region
Webpage: www.nytimes.com/2002/05/29/nyregion/metrocampaigns/29REPU.html
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Shaila K. Dewan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)

REPUBLICANS, IN A SHOW OF UNITY, VOTE AS ONE TO NOMINATE CANDIDATES

In a show of unity and allegiance to Gov. George E. Pataki, state 
Republican Party delegates voted unanimously yesterday to designate John J. 
Faso as their candidate for state comptroller and Dora Irizarry, the first 
Hispanic woman to be nominated to statewide office, as attorney general. 
Each was the only candidate nominated.

It was a placid contrast to the fractious Democratic State Convention last 
week, where one of the headliners, Andrew M. Cuomo, refused to appear and 
other candidates hustled for last-minute votes.

Mr. Faso, who resigned as the minority leader of the State Assembly to 
campaign, is running in an open race, the first for state comptroller in 24 
years. Ms. Irizarry, a former state judge who was appointed by Mr. Pataki, 
faces a formidable candidate in Eliot L. Spitzer, the Democratic incumbent 
who last week won a $100 million settlement from Merrill Lynch.

With a strong incumbent, Mr. Pataki, topping the ticket, several delegates 
said they were savoring party unity and did not mind if their convention 
did not make headlines.

"I don't think a convention without a pitched battle is such a terrible 
thing," said Joseph Kasper, the leader of the 31st Assembly District in 
Queens. "If it's a love-fest, God bless it, because it looks a lot better 
than the Democratic convention."

The only tiny rumble of dissent on the floor yesterday came when one 
delegate proclaimed his county the state's most beautiful. The convention 
was so orderly, in fact, that even though numerous speakers said they had 
received instructions to dally, the day's proceedings ended an hour ahead 
of schedule.

Even the decor reflected the tone of unanimity. At the Democratic 
gathering, held in the same mid-Manhattan hotel ballroom last week, 
balloons trailing campaign placards used the chandelier-decked ceiling as a 
playing field in their own version of the World Cup tournament. The 
Republican's balloons were bundled in a net, presumably awaiting a victory 
lap by Governor Pataki today.

Dissent, when it appeared, met with a quick response. When Louis P. Wein, 
an insurgent candidate running for governor, attempted to distribute 
literature in the press room, his fliers were quickly confiscated. In the 
middle of an interview with a reporter, Mr. Wein, who has run for office on 
both the Constitution Party and the Right to Life Party lines, was thrown 
out of the room by Todd Alhart, a state Republican Party spokesman.

Later, Mr. Wein was allowed to return. Mr. Alhart said the candidate had 
not had the proper credentials and there had been a misunderstanding with 
security officers.

Yesterday's main speaker was Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who emphasized the 
need to enroll voters, particularly recent immigrants, as Republicans and 
to make the party open and inclusive.

Amid many references to "our great governor," Mr. Bloomberg said: "I'm so 
thrilled that you've let me come and speak. I thought you were going to ask 
me to hold his coat." It was a reference to Mr. Cuomo's complaint that 
Governor Pataki had played only a supporting role to Rudolph W. Giuliani 
after Sept. 11, doing nothing but holding the mayor's coat.

Mr. Bloomberg said all New Yorkers owed the governor thanks for his help 
after Sept. 11. Later, the mayor, a former Democrat, said that he had voted 
for Mr. Pataki in 1998, but could not remember if he had in 1994.

Ms. Irizarry, the nominee for attorney general and one of the few minority 
faces at the convention, said that if elected she would shift the office's 
focus to Internet crime; insurance, identity and credit card fraud; and to 
fighting drugs, although she supports reform of the Rockefeller drug laws.

Ms. Irizarry, who was introduced by former Police Commissioner Bernard 
Kerik, is a former Bronx narcotics prosecutor who was appointed to a 
judgeship by Mr. Pataki in 1997.

In the comptroller's race, Mr. Faso, from Columbia County, told delegates 
that he had a record of fiscal responsibility, fighting tax increases and 
government spending in his 16 years in the Assembly. "The job of 
comptroller is not about pursuing headlines," he said. "It's about watching 
the bottom line."

Asked by reporters how he could be expected to monitor a governor in his 
own party, he said he had disagreed with the governor before - on the 
health care package passed in January and on the expansion of casino 
gambling - and would again.

He also suggested that he would not consider political and ethical 
questions like whether to invest state pension fund assets in tobacco 
companies. "The bottom line is: What is the return? That's the way I look 
at it," he said.

Mr. Faso stopped short of saying that he would limit campaign contributions 
from those who do business with the state, as his Democratic opponents have 
said they would do. "I'm going to abide by the rules as they exist," he said.
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