LBANY, N.Y. - In a move that could shake up New York's Senate race, the powerful leader of the state Conservative Party said yesterday he is on the verge of backing a candidate other than New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Giuliani is a Republican, and no GOP candidate has won statewide office in the state in more than a quarter-century without support from the Conservative Party.
At the same time, a vice chairman of the Liberal Party, which in the past has backed Giuliani's mayoral bids, said many party leaders want to back Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate race.
Unlike other states, New York allows major-party candidates to add votes from third parties to their totals.
That can be the deciding factor in close contests, as in 1994 when Republican George Pataki won the governorship on the strength of the Conservative Party vote.
Conservative Party chairman Michael Long refused to identify his possible alternative Senate candidate, other than to say ''people will recognize the name.''
He said the person would probably come forward within three weeks.
Long has insisted that Giuliani, an abortion-rights supporter, back a ban on what critics call ''partial-birth abortion'' if he wants the Conservative Party ballot line. The mayor has refused to do that.
As for the Liberal Party, Joseph Laux, a party leader from the Albany area, said he and other Hillary Clinton supporters in the party leadership found that 70 percent of their upstate colleagues also want to support the first lady's candidacy.
No Democrat has won a statewide election in New York without Liberal Party support since the party's founding more than 50 years ago.
