The New York Capitol News

4/27/09

Edward-Isaac Dovere

 

Back in 1994, then-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R) helped propel an obscure state senator named George Pataki (R) into the governor’s mansion. The Republican Revolution was at hand across the country, and D’Amato was the New York field general, making sure his handpicked candidate knocked Mario Cuomo (D) from power.

These days, D’Amato calls his political viewpoint “Republicrat,” had a spot front-and-center at the press conference announcing Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D) appointment, and says he has not talked to Pataki recently about the idea of running for Senate or anything else.

Even so, the man who once admitted that his old protégé’s performance in office broke his heart said that New York Republicans should and will be open to Pataki running for Senate.

“The party would like to have a winner, and just because he may have made some decisions that I felt were not in the state’s best interests and I felt badly about doesn’t mean” that he should be disqualified, D’Amato said.

“There’s some hardliners, there are always some hardliners,” he explained. “But if they can forgive Rudy Giuliani for having supported Mario Cuomo, certainly it seems to me that the party is big enough to be able to support George Pataki enthusiastically if he decided to run.”

But though D’Amato says he is over the problems of the past, his once-broken heart now seems to be with Rep. Peter King (R-Nassau), whose interest in the race has been largely drowned out since the rumors of Pataki’s interest in the Gillibrand race began to emerge. It is King, not Pataki, whom D’Amato now refers to as the “leading luminary” in the state GOP.

Indeed, asked whether he would support Pataki, his old ally, over Gillibrand, who interned in his Senate office while she was in college and whose father is an old friend, D’Amato turned the conversation to King.

“I am a Republican, and if the choice is between Peter King or Gillibrand, I would be supporting Peter,” D’Amato said, citing his close friendship with the nine-term congressman and kindred philosophy.

Asked if he would make that same commitment to backing Pataki, D’Amato paused.

“Most likely,” he said.

For his part, King has been making some appearances around the state and beginning to fundraise, with a plan to make a final decision about running by the end of the summer.

A few months ago, his intentions were much more certain. A huge critic of the idea of Gov. David Paterson’s (D) appointing Caroline Kennedy to the Senate, King said he had already prepared a statement of candidacy that he would have been “ready to file two seconds after Paterson appointed her.”

Among those who had encouraged him to do this while the Kennedy speculation was at full throttle, King noted, was Pataki himself.

Nevertheless, he said, he does not mind the recent speculation about the Senate seat centering on Pataki.

“If George wants to get his name out there, it’s fine,” King said. “I’m not going to begrudge anyone getting into the race, especially when I haven’t decided about running.”

While King lagged in the early March Marist poll, which found that Republicans preferred Pataki over him 56-32 percent, and that he was down against Gillibrand 49-28 while Pataki was much closer at 45-41, he said the internal polling he has seen makes him confident about his chances.

In addition to the support that his Republican record gives him upstate, King said, the data shows him ahead in the outer boroughs of New York City and the surrounding suburbs, crucial swing areas for a statewide election.

“I run stronger than any other Republican I’ve seen in polls in the suburbs,” he said.

In other words, King hinted, leave the Gillibrand challenge to him.

“George can run against Schumer,” he joked, referring to the other Senate seat, which will also be up next year.

If not, King said, he is prepared to take on Pataki in a primary.

“To me it would show that people are interested,” King said. “It shows that the seat is worth going for.”