Blakeman blasts rival Senate GOP candidate

Bruce Blakeman, U.S. Senate candidate, looked to set off some verbal firecrackers to usher in his Independence Day weekend. During a brief phone interview Thursday, he called David Malpass, a rival for the Republican nomination, an "opportunist" from an "ivory tower" who's "out of touch with the grass roots."

Contacted for response, Team Malpass suggested the Blakeman campaign is just a fizzling dud.

"I suspect," said Malpass spokeswoman Jessica Proud, "this is a last-ditch attempt to blur the fact that he [Blakeman] is going to be filing some poor fundraising numbers that won't show a strong candidacy."

Money is, of course, one of the major concerns in both Republicans' drive to face and unseat Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the seat last year.

She's well-funded, but if an opponent gathers even a bit of steam, she may really need every advantage she can get. A Newsday/Siena poll of Long Island voters published last week indicated limp ratings: 24 percent viewing her favorably, 33 percent unfavorably and 43 percent offering no opinion.

Yet her challengers' poll numbers fall short of posing a coherent threat. Joseph DioGuardi, the former Westchester congressman and Conservative Party nominee now circulating petitions to make the GOP primary ballot, led with 21 percent - followed by Blakeman at 7 percent and Malpass at 3 percent.

"More than two-thirds of Republican voters, however, remain undecided on who their nominee should be," said Siena spokesman Steve Greenberg. "Among Republicans it remains a wide-open race."

As the fiscal quarter ended Wednesday, federal candidates prepared to file disclosure forms. Blakeman this week e-mailed an appeal for contributions, claiming "we're closing in on our goal." Numbers had yet to be posted.

Blakeman - ex-presiding officer of the Nassau legislature - seemed eager to pre-empt any appearance of vulnerability. He said his fundraising efforts began in earnest only in the four weeks since he emerged as the preferred candidate of the GOP state convention, with key backing from counties with blocs of Republican enrollment. Much funding will come through in the weeks ahead, he said. Next Thursday, for example, a $300-per-head Blakeman fundraiser is planned in Westbury, with "gold" sponsorships costing $1,000, and "platinum" sponsorships, $2,400.

DioGuardi has a special edge - the Conservative ballot line. He also has a special hurdle - the need for petitions, having failed to draw 25 percent of the weighted GOP convention vote. Tom Kise, DioGuardi's spokesman, said the effort to get 15,000 valid petition signatures was "going very well." "In certain places around the state," he said, "our volunteers are working together with different organizations and groups. Other places, it's just us . . . It's all done on a local level, case by case."

Malpass, an economist, was a deputy assistant Treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan, and deputy assistant secretary of state under President George H. W. Bush. Said Proud: "People are really responding to the idea of having a representative that actually knows about the economy."

On Sunday, Malpass will address a tea party group at the Southampton rail station, then march in the local parade. Blakeman will attend Massapequa's parade.

For her part, Gillibrand Thursday held a telephone news conference on an issue she began pressing while in the House: Need for better coordination in caring for soldiers and veterans with mental-health issues.

Later, she disputed Republican portrayals of her as a rubber stamp for powerful Washington Democrats, saying through spokesman Glen Caplin: "Long Island voters are smarter than that and will make independent judgments on candidates."