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Rick Lazio
Paladino To Lazio: Cluck You!
Aug 27th - 3:19 pm
Carl Paladino continues to pound Rick Lazio for refusing to face him.
After accusing him of being too chicken to debate, Paladino sent a giant hen to heckle Lazio.
Now, he’s hosting a free chicken BBQ for supporters on Monday in Syracuse – the same time and place YNN and NY1 invited the two Republicans to debate.
Paladino says the event is open to “all Syracuse-area Republicans who are mad as Hell that lobbyist Rick Lazio has flipped off Party loyalists by refusing to debate Paladino.”
Here are the details:
WHO: Carl Paladino and Little Ricky the Debate Chicken
WHAT: Barbeque picnic open to all area Republicans
WHEN: Monday, August 27th, 5:00 – 7:00pm
WHERE: Onondaga Lake Park, Glen Shelter, 106 Lake Drive, Liverpool, NY 13088
Rick Lazio cited scheduling conflicts as the reason he won’t debate Paladino before the primary. He says he’s focused only on the general election and will gladly debate Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Lazio’s Issue With ‘This Mosque And This Imam’
Aug 27th - 9:00 am
During an interview with YNN’s Bill Carey yesterday, GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio reiterated that he does not believe opposition to the Park51 project has anything to do with religion, and even suggested if the players involved were different, he might not feel so strongly.
The following exchange took place at the State Fair outside Syracuse, where Lazio attended opening day, and, yes, ate a sausage sandwich.
“Lazio: Nobody wants to put a cap on mosques. Nobody is saying that Muslims shouldn’t have a place to pray. This is not in a residential area. I’m talking about this mosque and this imam.”
B. Carey: “If there were another imam involved who did not have the background of this particular man?”
Lazio: “I think it would be an entirely different situation. I think there are two questions. The first is the sensitivity to the families of the victims of 9/11 and the proximity to Ground Zero.”
“After all, the building that’s there right now that was damaged by the landing gear of one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers. And the second question is: Where is this money coming from? Those are the two issues I’ve raised.”
Lazio Hams Up His Sausage Moment
Aug 26th - 5:11 pm
GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio isn’t a man who makes the same mistake twice – at least not when it comes to Gianelli’s Sausage.
While attending opening day at the State Fair outside Syracuse today, the former Long Island congressman made a beeline for the event’s signature dish and made sure there were cameras on hand to capture the moment.
He’s clearly making the most of the 2000 misstep when he nearly caused a revolt in Central New York after taking a pass and confessing to being “so-so on the sausage sandwiches” during his US Senate race against Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons, who rarely pass up the chance to capitalize on such political gifts, made sure to dine on this delicacy when they took their turn at the fair. Lazio returned to for some ex post facto sausage eating, but the damage had already been done.
Some pundits say it was a combination of this epicurean error and the “sign this pledge” debate moment that tanked Lazio’s campaign. Obviously, the candidate has learned a few things.
Dems Take Aim At Lazio, Paladino (UPDATED)
Aug 26th - 11:28 am
The two Republicans running for governor have been working overtime to discredit the other.
Rick Lazio avoids even uttering Carl Paladino’s name and he is refusing to debate him ahead of next month’s primary, insisting he’s focused on his general election fight against Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Paladino, meanwhile, released an ad earlier this month declaring that New Yorkers have two choices in the race for governor – Cuomo and himself.
But while the two GOP contenders continue to deny the existence of the other, the state Democratic party is taking aim at them both by launching an ad campaign casting them as the problem, rather than the solution for Albany.
Lazio’s Twisted Debate Logic
Aug 25th - 4:43 pm
At Rick Lazio’s Orange County campaign event today, YNN’s Doug Short asked the candidate (in between heckles) how he expects Democratic frontrunner Andrew Cuomo to accept a post-primary invitation to debate him – assuming he wins on Sept. 14 – if he won’t agree to go mano-a-mano with Carl Paladino.
“The general election is going to be here before we know it. We’re going to be talking about the fundamental differences between the two candidates,” Lazio responded.
“There are only, you know, in my mind there’s one, you know, there are two candidates.There’s only one candidate that’s the official designee of the Republican Party and the Conservative Party.”
“I won in a four-person convention by over 60 percent of the vote. The Republicans had a vetting process, they have spoken. The conservatives have as well.”
“We need to get on to the main event. And at that point we’re going to have, we’re going to have our debate with, with um, Andrew Cuomo. If he’ll debate.”
To which Short replies: “That doesn’t answer my question.” Indeed.
The hecklers – and reporters – followed Lazio to his car, yelling all the way. And then he got in and departed.
Lazio Heckled By Paladinoites
Aug 25th - 4:01 pm
GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidte Rick Lazio was relentlessly heckled during a campaign stop in Orange County earlier today by Carl Paladino supporters furious over the former congressman’s refusal to debate his Republican primary opponent.
There were at least two Paladinoites on hand at the Lazio event – a man and a woman.
She yelled “debate Paladino” and “stop ducking” over and over. She was so loud that Lazio, who was clearly rattled, could at times barely be heard over her screeching. He even tried to incorporate her into his speech, saying that what Albany really needs is people to get angry and make themselves heard.
Lazio supporters (or perhaps staffers?) tried in vain to block the woman’s orange-and-black Paladino sign with red-white-and-blue Lazio signs. At the 4:14 mark, a guy in a suit tries to elbow her out of the way and she says: “If you push me, I will have you arrested.”
In the post-event Q&A, Lazio joked: “I’ve had worse, believe me,” adding:
“There’s a lot of big mouths out there, but we know what we have to do…we’re not going to be shouted down. We’re not going to let name-calling get in the way.”
Middletown Times Herald-Record reporter Steve Israel asked Lazio why he’s spending so much time talking about the mosque proposed near Ground Zero when it’s not an issue that impacts people outside NYC.
“This is an issue I think that transcends party,” Lazio responds. “It transcends geography. Other people are very concerned about the safety of New Yorkers….Wherever you live, people are concerned about the risk to our public safety as a result of radicalized elements and terrorism. And I think people, wherever you live, look at the area around the…site as hallowed ground.”
Lazio In The National Spotlight (Updated)
Aug 25th - 12:03 pm
Chris Matthews didn’t cut GOP/Conservative gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio any slack last night on “Hardball”, slamming the former Long Island congressman for politicizing the mosque and using 9/11 images in a campaign ad.
One positive for Lazio: This is the second time in less than a week that Lazio got onto national TV. (Recall that he was on “Meet the Press” over the weekend). With less than $700,000 in the bank, Lazio needs all the free media he can get – positive or negative, it makes no difference at this point. At least people know his name.
UPDATE: Lazio spokesman David James informs me it’s actually four national media appearances in eight days. Monday, 8/16, The News Hour on PBS; Tuesday, 8/17, Hanmity, Fox News Channel; Sunday, 8/22, MTP; Tuesday, 8/24, Hardball; Thursday, 8/19, Hannity Radio.
From that standpoint, the mosque is working for him. Even if the Times editorial board hates his approach. He wasn’t going to get the Gray Lady’s support anyway, and remember: She’s the paper the right loves to hate.
Matthews focused on Lazio’s claims about Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and he also rehashed the candidate’s “sign this soft money pledge” moment with Hillary Clinton during the 2000 debate.
“This is your aggressive kind of campaign tactic,” Matthews said. “I know what you do when you’re behind. You’re 30-some points behind.”
“There you went over and practically served papers on Hillary Clinton. I don’t think the public liked that very much. Why do you persist in this kind of campaign tactic?”
Lazio responded by noting that US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former DNC Chairman/presidential contender Howard Dean, former Gov. George Pataki, and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Anti-Defamation League, and 70 percent of New Yorkers have all come out – to one degree or another – against the mosque or, at the very least, in favor of relocating it.
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Lazio Ad: ‘Cuomo Is Albany’ (Updated)
Aug 25th - 9:33 am
Rick Lazio has launched another television ad trying to tie Andrew Cuomo to the dysfunction in Albany. The spot is pretty straightforward, even saying at one point “Andrew Cuomo is Albany.”
The Lazio campaign says this spot is going to be hitting the airwaves across the state starting today.
UPDATE: New York Democrats just issued this fact check of the ad.
Rhetoric: “Rick Lazio. One of us…”
Reality: As Wall Street’s top lobbyist Rick Lazio has made $8 million the past decade, including a $1.3 million bonus in 2009, paid for with taxpayer bailout funds.
They also attached this link, to a story about the bonus he received.
RttT, Gubernatorial Edition
Aug 24th - 4:59 pm
There are a slew of statements clogging up my in-box in reaction to today’s announcement that New York placed second in the second round of “Race to the Top” funding – so many that I’m not going to bother posting them all.
In short: There’s a lot of back-patting going on, with both the Democrats and Republicans taking credit for passing the reforms – raising the charter school cap and allowing teachers tenure to be pegged in part to student performance – than helped improve the states RttT application (recall that it finished dead last after making it onto the finalist list in Round I).
On the political front, both AG Andrew Cuomo and Rick Lazio both released RttT statements, which I find of particular interest in Cuomo’s case since his support of charter schools is something that rankles both the teachers unions and many of the Democratic legislative allies.
US Senate GOP Debate Highlight #3: Paladino vs. Lazio (Updated)
Aug 24th - 2:47 pm
By request.
Asked during the lightning round whether they would be willing to vote for Carl Paladino over Rick Lazio in the Sept. 14 GOP gubernatorial primary, Gary Berntsen punted, saying repeatedly that he will be voting for whoever wins and gets onto the November ballot.
That’s in spite of the fact that Berntsen is running on Paladino’s independent “Taxpayer Party” line and, unlike his fellow US Senate hopeful, David Malpass (for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat), has refused to say if he’ll bow out of the general election if he doesn’t win the primary.
UPDATE: Paladino spokesman Matthew Richter informs me his candidate has signed a pledge to support whoever wins the primary – even if it’s not him.
Townsend, who has the Conservative Party line, said he’s supporting his fellow Row D candidate, Rick Lazio.
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