At gubernatorial debate, seven's a crowd

ALBANY - The minor-party candidates could serve as spoilers in Monday night's gubernatorial debate with Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Carl Paladino, experts say.

"A head-to-head debate is always better if you think you are the better candidate, as Cuomo does," said Stanley B. Klein, a politics professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. "If you are the underdog, like Paladino, you want the chance to take your shot directly at your opponent without any interference."

Cuomo, the attorney general, comes into the debate at Hofstra University leading in the polls, including a new one yesterday from the New York Times showing him ahead 59 percent to 24 percent among likely voters. Paladino, the Buffalo real estate magnate, needs to recover from three weeks of controversy surrounding comments on homosexuality and a confrontation with a New York Post reporter.

The 90-minute debate could be the only meeting between the two before the Nov. 2 general elections. Experts say the minor-party contenders are likely to use the televised encounter to boost their profile with voters, potentially detracting from both Cuomo and Paladino.

"The five others really don't do either Paladino or Cuomo any good," Klein said.

The debate will feature Cuomo; Paladino; Howie Hawkins, Green Party; Warren Redlich, Libertarian Party; Charles Barron, Freedom Party; Kristin Davis, Anti-Prohibition Party; and Jimmy McMillan, Rent Is 2 Damn High Party.

It was organized by News 12 Long Island Networks, Newsday and Hofstra, and will take place at 7 p.m. in the university's David S. Mack Sports & Exhibition Complex. The debate also will be broadcast live statewide on cable television and public radio.

News 12 Long Island spokeswoman Deborah Koller-Feeney said the format was decided by the organizers. "We invited all seven candidates and . . . we are pleased all seven candidates have accepted," she said.

'Issues that matter'

Asked about the potential impact of all seven sharing the debate stage, Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said, "The attorney general plans to focus at the debate on the issues that matter to New Yorkers like jobs, property taxes, and ethics. People are sick and tired of gutter, attack politics."

Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo said last night Paladino has always insisted all seven candidates be included because he knows how difficult it is to gather signatures on petitions for a spot on the ballot. Paladino petitioned his way onto the Sept. 14 Republican primary ballot and established the Taxpayers ballot line for the Nov. 2 general elections.

Still, Caputo acknowledged seven people sharing the debate stage "will limit the time Carl has to redefine himself for the voters."

Such a debate format allows voters to observe the front-runners' character and interpersonal skills as the candidates jostle for the spotlight, said Allan Louden, a political-debate expert and communications professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"We cast notions about their character and what they're like" in such a format, Louden said.

And as the format allows voters to hear from all the candidates, he said, those who have a preferred candidate can judge him against the others.

Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College, said that, given Paladino's penchant for controversy, a crowded debate field may be beneficial: "He has less time to . . . put his foot in his mouth."

The others' roles

Of the five minor candidates, Muzzio said Barron, the Freedom Party candidate, could be the most damaging to Cuomo. Barron, a New York City councilman, launched his candidacy to protest the lack of diversity in the Democrats' statewide ticket. "Charles is smart, articulate and will stay on message and his message is to a core Democratic constituency," Muzzio said.

Desmond Ryan, a veteran lobbyist from Long Island, said it was "shrewd" of Cuomo to agree to the seven-candidate format, saying the attorney general was "running his father's playbook from 20 years ago."

In 1990, Gov. Mario Cuomo, seeking a third term, included his three challengers in two debates and watched them attack each other as often as they lit into him. Four years later, Ryan said, challenger George W. Pataki declined to debate Cuomo in a multi-candidate "theater of the absurd" format. In fact, Pataki and Cuomo never met in a one-on-one debate in the 1994 election, which Pataki won.

"When you have multiple participants, not of the same competitive stature, that only enhances the status of the front-runner and destroys the quality of the debate," Ryan said.

William Cunningham, a Manhattan political strategist and former top aide to two Democratic governors, agreed. "Nobody is going to get 50 percent of the time to look like an alternative to the attorney general."

But Klein, the C.W. Post professor who also is a GOP committeeman in Dix Hills, said Paladino has more at stake in the debate. "Paladino needs to show he can respond to responsible questions with responsible answers," Klein said.

With James T. Madore and Matthew Chayes