Free Republic

Showing their fund-raising prowess, the Democrats Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Rodham Clinton have collected millions of dollars in recent months, many times more than their Republican opponents running for governor and United States senator. Mrs. Clinton, who is seeking her second term in the Senate, has about $22 million cash on hand, 100 times the amount for either of her Republican rivals, John Spencer, a former mayor of Yonkers, and Kathleen Troia McFarland, a Reagan-era Pentagon official, according to numbers provided by their campaigns yesterday. Mr. Spitzer, the attorney general, who began raising money for his campaign for governor nearly...

Borrowing a page from Karl Rove's playbook, John Faso plans to spend the next five months convincing voters that his likely opponent in the governor's race, Eliot Spitzer, comes with a defining liability: Mr. Spitzer would raise your taxes. Mr. Faso, who became the presumptive Republican nominee on Tuesday when William F. Weld withdrew his candidacy, has already used the sort of tactics that characterized John Kerry as a flip-flopper in 2004. In doing so, Mr. Faso is also playing to one of his strengths: Both his friends and his opponents say he is a tenacious debater, who would be...

Interview on WABC running now

--But he earns a spot on primary ballot-- HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- New York Republican delegates designated John Faso yesterday as their candidate for governor, but the race that has divided party leaders will go to a September primary because former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld landed enough support to earn a spot on the ballot. Faso received 61.2 percent of the weighted vote to become the party's state convention designee after attempts to avoid a primary and unite the ticket failed. The talks, which included outgoing Governor George Pataki, lasted into early yesterday, state Republican leaders said. Former Massachusetts governor...

The Republican Party in this state has a big decision to make: Is it Republican or is it Democrat? The party faces this crossroads up and down the ballot, and all across the state - but an anecdote from the battle for the gubernatorial nomination between former Assembly Minority leader John Faso and onetime Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld really brings it home. Earlier this month, Bill DeProspo, a Weld supporter and the GOP chairman of Orange County, sent a long letter attacking Faso for once voting against a comparable-worth bill - and complaining that this (along with other votes) shows...

Prominent New York Republicans took steps yesterday to derail John Faso's bid for the party nomination for governor by assailing him as an extremist conservative who would drag down the entire Republican slate in the November elections. The onslaught against Mr. Faso, a former assemblyman, could help prepare the way for a major development, several New York Republicans said: Gov. George E. Pataki's endorsement of another candidate, William F. Weld. These Republicans, who are close to Mr. Pataki, said he would like to endorse Mr. Weld but could do so only if Mr. Faso was seen by Republican voters as...

The Republican race for governor of New York is set for a shake-up on Monday with one of the three candidates, Randy A. Daniels, planning to drop out and throw his conservative and upstate political coalition to a rival, John Faso, both men said today.

The Republican race for governor of New York is set for a shake-up on Monday with one of the three candidates, Randy A. Daniels, planning to drop out and throw his conservative and upstate political coalition to a rival, John Faso, both men said today. Mr. Daniels, a former New York secretary of state, said that he will endorse Mr. Faso at a campaign event in Albany on Monday morning, and that he expected at least some of his allies to attend and switch sides to Mr. Faso as well. Both men said in separate interviews that no deals were...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long has personally endorsed Republican John Faso for governor in a letter sent to party members. The endorsement of the full committee, expected in the spring, is considered important for Republicans because state GOP candidates haven't won statewide races without the Conservative line in decades.

Patrick Manning is what New Yorkers, in an earlier era, used to call a “big palooka.” With his 6-foot, 11-inch frame stretched out over the chair of a midtown restaurant, the 40-year-old Dutchess County Assemblyman—a contender for the Republican gubernatorial nod—is one huge, handsome hunk of horseflesh, a real thrill for a handicapper in high heels, such as this columnist. What’s more, he displays an outsized ambition and a disposition that matches his height. Mr. Manning makes much of his stature: He advertises himself as “the tallest elected official in the country” and named his reform effort “Stand Tall New...

Ground Zero bigshot John Whitehead, who has charged that he was threatened by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, broke a week of silence last night and angrily denounced Spitzer as a liar. Interviewed by The Post outside his Manhattan offices, Whitehead ripped Spitzer after learning the attorney general and Democratic candidate for governor had publicly insisted earlier in the day that he never made any such threats. "He said every word of it," Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., firmly told The Post last night. "I'm angry that he is denying that he said it, because he knows...

(Albany-AP) -- The state's arcane election law has caused an important civil suit. Republican-Conservative comptroller candidate John Faso is suing to keep a minor party from switching Democrats on its state comptroller's line in the November ballot. Thousands of votes could potentially be added to the totals of the leading candidates in New York. The state allows major-party nominees to count votes they receive on minor-party line toward overall general election totals. A state Supreme Court judge will hear the suit tomorrow and determine whether Democratic candidate Alan Hevesi gains the Working Families Party line. The party had endorsed Bill...

ALBANY --- A new Marist poll shows Republicans have cut into the Democrats leds in two State races. Last week a Quinnipiac University Poll showed former Assembly Minority leader John Faso trailing Democrat Alan Hevsi by nearly 12% in the race for State Comptroller. Yesterdays new findings how Hevsi with a 5% lead. The same poll shows Democrat Attorney General Eliott Spitzer with a 10 % lead over Republican candidate Judge Dora Irizzary. Last weeks poll show Spitzer with a nearly 20% lead. The GOP candidates say it shows the momentum is on their side.