State GOP convenes on LI

BY RICK BRAND | Newsday Staff Writer

May 31, 2006

Hundreds of Republican officials from around the state are gathering today on Long Island as former Massachusetts governor William Weld and former Republican assemblyman John Faso battle for the GOP gubernatorial designation.

The convention convened at 10 a.m. at the 5,154-seat Hofstra University Arena, leading off with the nomination of Jeanine Pirro for state attorney general, the only statewide race on which GOP officials are agreed.

Later in the day, party officials will pick a Senate candidate - either former Yonkers mayor John Spencer or Kathleen "K.T." McFarland, a Pentagon aide during the Reagan administration - to take on the Democratic incumbent, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The session will end with a speech from outgoing Gov. George Pataki.

The big event, however, is tomorrow, when party delegates line up on the gubernatorial nomination.

Host Joseph Mondello, the Nassau GOP chairman, who controls more than 10 percent of the weighted convention vote, said he is still undecided whether to throw his support to either candidate or let it be "an open convention" that will lead to a primary.

"I want to be a player," said Mondello. "If ... I'm assured one way or the other will work for the party, I'll act that way."

However, he also indicated a primary might give the party momentum for November.

John McArdle, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick), who has remained neutral and sought a ticket that includes both men, said, "It's going to be close either way, so all anyone will walk away with is bragging rights."

State Republicans are facing their toughest election in years, without Pataki to lead the ticket and with President George W. Bush and the national GOP sagging in the polls over the Iraqi war, gas prices and lobbying scandals. Some of the state's brightest GOP luminaries are also expected to be absent, including former senator Alfonse D'Amato, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and current mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Leading up to the convention, Faso, who already has Conservative Party support, has surged in recent weeks, picking up the Saratoga County GOP late last week, Erie County Republicans Monday when they defected from Weld, and Assembly Minority Leader James Tedesco (R-Schenectady) yesterday. Suffolk Republicans, with nearly 9 percent of the convention's weighted vote, also came out for the Kinderhook Republican, who was raised on Long Island.

Weld, who has Smithtown roots and a Bellport home, has the support of state GOP chairman Stephen Minarik III and spent his convention eve making political and fundraising calls before attending last night's opening reception at the Garden City Hotel, said his spokeswoman, Andrea Tantaros.