Enemies useful in primary season

Tweak an old proverb, and you get a slogan for next Tuesday's primary.

My enemy's enemy may not be my friend - but he can be useful.

Take Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). He's been looking on for months as three GOP contenders to face him on the November election bash each other.

Both George Demos and Christopher Cox have been slamming well-funded rival Randy Altschuler for his former company's role in sending back-office jobs to India. But that's just one line of the crossfire in the runup to Tuesday's primary vote by Republicans in the 1st Congressional District.

"One thing all the Republicans seem to have right," says Bishop aide Jon Schneider, "is that the other guys are extraordinarily flawed candidates. They've raised issues about each other that seem to have a lot of merit, whether it's Randy Outsourcer, or Chris Cox's living on Park Avenue, or the other guy, whatever his name is . . ."

True, all three potential foes have painted Bishop as part of a House Democratic majority they blame for governmental ills. But it is hard right now to see the static to Bishop's right giving way to party harmony in the race.

The idea of letting the other guy's primary fight help you from across the partisan divide works both ways in this major-party duopoly.

Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan, who locked up the Republican and Conservative nominations for state attorney general last spring - congenially and without rancor - seems to be in a position parallel to Bishop's. Donovan's November opponent, whoever it proves to be, is vying with four other candidates - in a race that has pushed negatives on most of them to the surface that the Donovan camp can glean against the winner without appearing to fabricate the attack. Success isn't guaranteed - but the tactic at least offers an option.

There are those who say that a candidate can emerge battle-tested, and stronger, from a primary race. Apparently, the White House and Sen. Charles Schumer and top state Democratic Party leaders saw little merit in that view when it came to a primary challenge for appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. One well-known potential Democratic rival after another stepped aside. Gail Goode, a lawyer from Brooklyn who's never held elected office, will be on the ballot Tuesday against Gillibrand. Goode is outfunded and underexposed.

Meanwhile, no national-celebrity Republican names emerged to capture the party's heart as a general-election opponent. On Tuesday, former Nassau legislative leader Bruce Blakeman, former Treasury Department official David Malpass and former Rep. Joseph DioGuardi will be on the menu for Republicans.

In a couple of Long Island races for State Senate, Republicans seem to find Democratic insurgencies handy. In Suffolk, Democrat Greg Fischer's initial residency challenge to Sen. Kenneth LaValle's expected Democratic rival was touted by the LaValle camp as the prelude to her being barred from the ballot. In Nassau, insurgent Assembly candidate Pat Nicolosi has cited irregularities in the petitions of rival Mimi Pierre Johnson and charged fraud against her and other Democrats, drawing interest from local Republicans.

Of course, even the candidate with a peaceful primary season still has to face the full electorate in the fall. Sometimes even a bloodied victor in a fierce primary battle does go on to win the election war.

To twist another proverb: Division does not always mean conquest.