Posted on 09/11/2002 3:17:52 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Tom Golisano appeared to defeat Gov. George E. Pataki in the Independence Party primary for governor yesterday, a serious setback to Mr. Pataki in his bid for a third term. In the Democratic camp, H. Carl McCall won his party's nomination to run for governor in November. With nearly all precincts reporting early this morning, Mr. Golisano had 52.5 percent of the vote, to 47.5 percent for Mr. Pataki, a lead of just 900 votes. As many as 2,000 absentee ballots remained uncounted, many of them from New York City, where the governor ran strongest. Near 1 a.m., Adam Stoll, Mr. Pataki's campaign manager, released a statement saying that Mr. Golisano "appears to have won his own party's nomination." But in keeping with the already testy tone of the race, he also chided Mr. Golisano for spending heavily "on a relentlessly negative campaign," in a primary in which fewer than 20,000 votes were cast. Addressing supporters at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rochester, Mr. Golisano said: "This is a great night for the Independence Party. One of the major parties wanted to take it over, wanted to co-opt it." Despite Mr. Golisano's apparent victory, campaign advisers on both sides say it is not certain who won, because of the uncounted absentee ballots, and the possibility of corrections in election-night totals. The mood at Mr. Golisano's election-night party and at Mr. Pataki's campaign headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, swung wildly through the evening, as Mr. Golisano's lead rose and fell. Twice, counting errors showed Mr. Pataki taking the lead, only to be corrected a few minutes later. William Neild, the candidate for lieutenant governor allied with Mr. Golisano, said, "We all took our nitroglycerin." At stake was whether Mr. Pataki, the Republican favored to win a third term, could go head-to-head against Mr. McCall, or would have to wage a tougher three-way battle, under assault from Mr. McCall on the left and Mr. Golisano on the right. Mr. Golisano also brings to the race a vast budget for ads critical of Mr. Pataki. The Pataki campaign, which mounted a major effort to send out absentee ballots, pinned its hopes on the uncounted votes, and the Golisano team signaled that it was ready to challenge their legality. "We'll take a real, hard look at them," said Charles Halloran, Mr. Golisano's campaign manager. In the race for state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, the former New York City comptroller, defeated William Mulrow, an executive of an investment firm, in the Democratic primary, 63 percent to 37 percent. They were also competing for the Working Families Party nomination; Mr. Hevesi already had the Liberal Party line on the November ballot. Mr. Hevesi will face the Republican John J. Faso, who also has the Independence and Conservative lines, on Nov. 5. New Yorkers went to the polls beneath the pall of today's anniversary of the World Trade Center destruction. Constant reminders of the occasion, and warnings yesterday of a new terrorist threat, brought fresh grief and anxiety to many people. Those events, and the withdrawal last week of Mr. McCall's primary rival, Andrew M. Cuomo, made for one of the oddest elections in memory, and one of the most neglected. Turnout was reported light statewide, with state elections officials estimating it at 10 percent to 12 percent in the Democratic primary, well below the 15.5 percent seen in the party's 1998 primary. There was widespread confusion in New York City, where redrawn election districts left many people uncertain where to vote. And there were scattered reports of other voting irregularities. The Independence Primary and Sept. 11 overshadowed the signal achievements of Mr. McCall, 66, who defeated a primary opponent with more money and, until recently, better name recognition. Mr. McCall could become the first black governor of New York, and only the second to be elected in the nation's history, after L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia. With nearly all precincts reporting, Mr. McCall led Mr. Cuomo 86 percent to 14 percent. "Tonight is a victory for every child and every family in this state, yet now, just hours before the anniversary of our overwhelming loss, our celebration is tempered," Mr. McCall told supporters at the Grand Hyatt New York in Midtown. Mr. McCall was joined by the state Democratic Party's leading figures, including Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Mrs. Clinton, whose assistance is considered crucial to Mr. McCall's chances, said she had held a fund-raiser for him in recent days, and would continue to campaign with him and raise money for him."I intend to be very visible and actively involved," she said. Mr. McCall's preferred running mate, Dennis Mehiel, won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor over Charlie King, 71 percent to 29 percent. Like his ally, Mr. Cuomo, Mr. King withdrew from the contest last week but remained on the ballot. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in party primaries, but once nominated, they run as a unified ticket. Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue, allied with Mr. Pataki, defeated Mr. Neild, 64 percent to 36 percent, in the Independence primary for lieutenant governor. That means if Mr. Golisano wins, he will have a hostile running mate in Ms. Donohue, who is also the Republican and Conservative nominee. The governor earns $179,000 per year, and the lieutenant governor and comptroller earn $151,500. With the collapse of Mr. Cuomo's campaign, the Independence contest between Mr. Golisano, the billionaire founder of a payroll processing company based in Rochester, and Mr. Pataki, the two-term Republican incumbent, offered the only suspense left in the primaries for governor. Mr. Pataki, 57, has pursued a two-pronged strategy in his campaign — to neutralize the Independence Party and Mr. Golisano, and to raise his standing in the Democratic stronghold of New York City by courting Latinos and labor unions. In two straight elections, the Independence Party had provided a platform for Mr. Golisano, its founder, and a haven for disaffected fiscal conservatives seeking an alternative to the major parties. In an interview last night Mr. Golisano said a victory would be a powerful shock to the established parties he rails against. "For someone coming up out of the business world to defeat a sitting governor in the primary," he said, "there's a very strong and potent message." Mr. Golisano has battered the governor with negative advertisements over the summer, dimming Mr. Pataki's popularity and cutting into his lead in public opinion surveys; a Golisano victory in the Independence primary would ensure that the pounding would continue through November. There has been talk of the Liberal Party making Mr. Golisano its nominee, replacing Mr. Cuomo and ensuring his continued presence in the race through November. Mr. Golisano said last night that if he won his primary, he might accept the Liberal nomination as well, but otherwise he would not. The Independence primary, another chapter in the quixotic political career of Mr. Golisano, 60, may have been, vote for vote, the most expensive campaign in American history. He spent about $25 million — more than $2,000 per primary vote — and said he was prepared to spend far more on the general election. Mr. Pataki and Mr. Golisano were also vying yesterday in the Conservative Party primary, which the governor was expected to win. Mr. Golisano was a write-in candidate, meaning that his votes must be counted by hand, and a reliable tally will not be known for days. As he has for days, Mr. Pataki skipped any overt campaigning and went instead to a series of Sept. 11-related events. He even decided to forgo the usual election-night party, watching the returns with his family at their home in Garrison. "I have not thought virtually at all about the primary today," he said on leaving his last public event. "Politics is secondary today. It will be tomorrow as well." Mr. McCall behaved as if he were still in a contest, as he has throughout, hoping that a healthy turnout and a resounding victory would give his campaign a boost. But he acknowledged that he found considerable apathy and confusion in talking to voters yesterday — many of whom, he said, did not know that Mr. Cuomo's name would still appear on the ballots and voting machines. He said of the low turnout, "You can expect that, given the nature of this election, the fact that there was an announcement last week that it was over." Mr. McCall's primary victory offers at least partial validation for the boldest move of his long career, giving up a safe seat as the state's chief fiscal officer to run against a popular incumbent governor. It was a bid strikingly out of character for this most cautious of politicians, but for Mr. McCall, this was probably also his last chance at higher office.
Howard Stern will get more than 20,000 votes in the November election.
and yet now they have built a party around me...
I will refuse to accept the nomination!!!
I wish you wouldn't use that red font! It's hard on the eyes in such large quantities.
The Perfection Caucus makes its voice heard.
I'd vote for Golisano in a heartbeat if I thought he could win. He can't, too bad.
As for "anyone but Pataki" -- well, that would be McCall. So far the only economic strategy he's proposed is to increase rent control in New York City. Now there's a formula for economic prosperity.
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