Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, a supporter of GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio, weighed in to express “reservations” with state Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox’s plan to establish an independent party, which has added to the perception that the idea is all-but dead.

State GOP spokesman Alex Carey acknowledged state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long has made his opposition to the new line “very clear,” but he is apparently not the only one.

“(T)hroughout the course of doing our due diligence and assessing where the various campaigns stood on the issue, it has become clear that Chairman Long is not alone in having some major concerns,” Carey said.

“In particular, while the Lazio campaign has not gotten back to Chairman Cox with their final decision as to whether or not to support a third line, it has always been clear that Chairman Cox cannot and would not proceed without support from the top of the ticket.”

“While circumstances could change, reservations expressed by Senator Skelos and the perceived hesitancy on the part of Rick Lazio and his campaign seem to suggest that the requisite support for the line is lacking as of today.”

Carey insisted that “more than one of our candidates’ campaigns came to Ed to share their support for the idea.” (He didn’t say which one, although as I noted earlier today, Staten Island DA Dan Donovan’s campaign has left the door open to running for AG on a third line in November).

Another GOP source indicated Cox’s independent line idea is now “DOA,” and suggested there was a brief float to try to merge the GOP line with Carl Paladino’s third party line (I would be shocked if the Paladino people agreed to this, but, as my source put it: “That may be a non-starter”).

Share|