Saturday Morning News

Can Rick Lazio Beat Hillary Clinton?

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Time is of the essence for New York Republicans, who have a new candidate to replace Rudolph Giuliani in the U.S. Senate race. Long Island Representative Rick Lazio has taken up the challenge. Now political observers are speculating about his chances of success against his opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Robert George is an associate editor of the "New York Post's" editorial page. He joins us with his insights.

Good morning, Robert.

ROBERT GEORGE, "NEW YORK POST": Good morning, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Why don't we get right into the issue of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Lazio. We were talking earlier about Hillary's been campaigning for a year now. He steps in. What do you think, tight? Tough?

GEORGE: Well, it's, well, obviously she starts with a lot of advantages. I mean she's got name recognition and she's got money and she's hit all 62 counties in the state. On the other hand, she has been campaigning for quite a while and even against a relevant unknown like Rick Lazio, I mean unknown statewide, she does not even, she does not get above 50 percent of the vote, which suggests that there's sort of a locked in, a locked in percentage of the electorate that does not really, is not really inclined to support her candidacy at this point.

So I think Lazio has a certain, has a fair amount of room to grow there.

PHILLIPS: Do you think she understands or really knows her opponent?

GEORGE: Well, I think, obviously, her campaign was geared around going up against Rudy Giuliani. This was really looking like a clash of the titans that everybody that was energizing people on both, in both sides. But I'm sure that the, I'm sure that the Democrats are doing their opposition research on Rick Lazio's voting record and so forth. So I'm sure they're getting to know Rick Lazio and they're going to make sure that the voters try and get to know Rick Lazio, as well.

PHILLIPS: Well, Lazio versus Giuliani, you think New Yorkers will tend to be more compassionate with Lazio?

GEORGE: Well, I think, I mean I think Rick Lazio is, I mean he's an interesting case because while he doesn't have the name recognition or the money that Rudy Giuliani had, he also doesn't have what could be considered some of the political baggage that Lazio had. He doesn't, he doesn't engender some of the intense hostility from some of the minority voters in New York City and in the, on the outlying suburbs there. So I think Lazio will be something of a fresh face there.

PHILLIPS: Now before Giuliani pulled out of the race, the polls showed that he was lagging behind Clinton. Do you think this played a part in him bowing out of the race?

GEORGE: No, I don't think so. I mean the numbers, the numbers between the two fluctuated by a couple of percentage points on either side. I think I would take him at his word that it is primarily his health considerations. But there are also a number of observers who felt that, who have speculated for a while whether he really wanted the job. He has sort of an executive mindset and being one of 100 senators, you know, doesn't always look, does not always look good in that respect.

So people wondered from quite a while if his heart was really in the Senate race.

PHILLIPS: Robert, do you think as he deals with his health situation that later on he could be running for governor? There's been talk.

GEORGE: That's, that's a very good, that's a very, very good possibility. Obviously it would seem to be the next logical step. But you have to keep in mind, Governor Pataki, there's nothing to stop Governor Pataki from running for a third term, which he may very well, and the relations between Rudy Giuliani and the state party have always been somewhat kind of dicey and if Pataki does not run for a third term, there's really nothing to say that there wouldn't be somebody else who'd want to challenge Giuliani and not give him a free ride into the governor's mansion.

PHILLIPS: We'll be following it. Robert George of the "New York Post," thanks for joining us this morning.

GEORGE: Thank you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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