Conservatives to name candidate for guv days before GOP

In a move that ratchets up the already high tension in the Republican contest for governor, state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long has scheduled his party's convention for the last business day before Republicans gather to name their candidate.

"I hoped that Republicans and Conservatives would be more united than we are, so I'm left with no option but to move forward," said Long, a Rick Lazio supporter. The Conservatives will now hold their convention May 28, at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City; Republicans convene at the same hotel four days later.

Long's decision was widely viewed as turning up the heat on Republicans sympathetic to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who as a new party member needs to win a majority at the Republican convention even to enter the GOP primary. No Republican candidate has won statewide office in decades without the Conservative line.

If Lazio, a former Long Island representative, goes into the Republican convention with the Conservative nomination, observers say many Republicans may feel they have no choice but to back him if they hope to have a united front against Democratic front-runner Andrew Cuomo.

So far, Lazio claims the public support of a little more than half the state GOP committee, and Levy a little more than 30 percent. Both trail Cuomo badly in recent polls.

Lazio's campaign manager, Kevin Fullington, called the Conservatives' announcement "another indication that Rick Lazio will be the nominee of both the Republican Party and the Conservative Party in the battle to defeat Andrew Cuomo in November. . . . For Steve Levy and his supporters, this is further proof that his candidacy has little traction."

But the Nassau and Suffolk Conservative chairmen, Levy supporters who together command about a quarter of their party's weighted vote, said Tuesday they will draft a primary challenger if Lazio is their party's nominee. Their convention, they said, is by no means the last word in who will hold the Conservative ballot line come November.

State election law has a "window" of several days after the convention before the nomination becomes final, said Suffolk Conservative Chairman Ed Walsh.

"If Levy is the nominee or blows the field away at the GOP convention, then people may want to sit down and work it out . . . so Steve's the nominee of our party," Walsh said."

Long pooh-poohed such talk. "If we wanted to, we could nominate a stand-in candidate, but that . . . is extremely unlikely and will not happen."

Levy's campaign cited Long's move as a sign of Lazio's weakness. "If there was a high level of enthusiasm and confidence in the Lazio campaign, such maneuvering would not be necessary."