While insisting that Rick Lazio has every intention of continuing to run for governor on Row D, state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long told me his leaders are nearly united against GOP nominee Carl Paladino and won’t back him even if the Long Island congressman bows out of the race.

Long said he set up a post-primary conference call Wednesday in which all but one key party leader (Erie County Conservative Chairman Ralph Lorigo, who challenged Lazio for the party’s nod and lost) were invited to participate.

Some 47 leaders were on the line, and, according to Long, they were close to 99 percent in agreement on their opposition to Paladino.

“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t looking into the mirror and hearing my own voice,” Long explained. “I said: ‘Guys, Rick is planning to move forward. Everyone is going to get a lot of pressure about endorsing Paladino and possibly moving Rick off the line. I’m of the view we have to continue to move forward.’”

Long said he then asked the leaders what they would want to do in the event that Lazio changes his mind and decides he would rather not campaign.

"While he strikes a chord on lots of issues that we stand for and believe in, they think, quite frankly, he is really irresponsible in his demeanor, in his character. They don’t want to have it written in history that he was their candidate."

"I was really taken aback. I didn’t lead the charge, all I did was open the book."

Remember: There’s no love lost between Paladino and the Conservatives – particularly Long. Paladino’s camp has made it clear it would like nothing more than to see the independent Taxpayers Party line he created relegate the Conservative Party to the sidelines.

The Conservative Party needs to get 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate in order to preserve its official ballot status. Once a party loses that, it is basically relegated to the netherworld of politics (just ask the Liberal Party members or the Green Party members how that feels).

In short: Ballot line = power in a state like New York – one of the few states that allows cross-party endorsements.

A lesser concern: If another party – say, the Working Families Party, which has been trying to move off Row E and usurp the Conservatives’ ballot position for years – receives more votes for its candidate (Andrew Cuomo), it will bump the Conservatives from Row D.

Lazio is scheduled to attend a Conservative Party dinner in Liverpool on Monday night, and is expected to let leaders know his decision about running by then. (Again, Long insists Lazio is in for the long haul).

Interestingly, the keynote address for that dinner is to be delivered by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the once and possibly future GOP presidential hopeful who endorsed the Tea Party Delaware US Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, who won her primary race this week.

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