Pataki gives Bush his backing

By Fred Kaplan, Globe Staff, May 25, 1999

NEW YORK -- "Anticlimax, thy name is George Pataki!"

So said Maurice Carroll, head of the Quinnipiac College Polling Institute, yesterday, after Governor Pataki announced he was endorsing Governor George W. Bush of Texas for president.

Pataki had lit a fuse a week ago, alerting reporters that, come Monday, he would make "a major political announcement." Rumors flew that he would run for US Senate or even the presidency -- rumors that he and his aides did nothing to dispel.

He rented a ballroom in a midtown hotel, and invited a few dozen of the state's major Republicans to join him on the dais. At least that many reporters and 24 TV cameras showed up to record the event. Cheers rang out as he approached the podium.

And then, at 10 a.m., Pataki became the 16th governor in the land to throw his support behind the as-yet-unannounced candidacy of his old pal, whom he has known since their college days at Yale.

Bush's face beamed from a huge closed-circuit television screen, thanking him and proclaiming, "I intend to win New York."

When a reporter asked about a possible Senate race, Pataki replied, "You never say never, but . . . I have no intention of running for the Senate."

The sighs of relief from City Hall could almost be heard all the way uptown.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has been thinking about running for the Senate seat that Daniel Patrick Moynihan is vacating in 2000. Had Pataki thrown his hat in that ring, it would have knocked the mayor out before the match began. There's no way, most political observers believe, the mayor could beat the governor in a statewide Republican primary.

Relations between the governor and the mayor -- both Republicans -- have never been warm and rarely been frostier. The widespread suspicion is that he let the other rumors fly precisely to tweak Giuliani.

"That's the general consensus," Cristyne Lategano, Giuliani's communications director, said yesterday.

Asked what she thought Pataki had in mind by hinting last week at grander plans, Lategano replied, "I wouldn't even begin to analyze the governor's action. That's for someone with a different degree than mine. But it was quite fascinating."

Even one of Pataki's close friends, who asked not to be identified, said the governor should not have hyped the event. "I think it was a mistake," the friend said. "It set up too-high expectations."

Still, political analysts from both parties agree, if Pataki meant to take a swat at the mayor, the announcement -- however anticlimactic -- succeeded.

"This was Pataki letting Rudy Giuliani know who the big guy is in the state's Republican Party," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant. "He showed he can deliver every Republican politician in the state, and Rudy can't. That was the whole deal. Rather shallow, but that's what it is."

Pataki did let Giuliani off one hook, however. Some analysts had wondered if the governor might use the occasion to endorse yet another candidate for the Senate seat. Representative Rick Lazio, a Republican from Long Island, has expressed interest in running, and Pataki has reportedly encouraged him.

Asked yesterday if he would endorse Giuliani for the Senate, Pataki replied, "Certainly I would consider endorsing him," and added that he "will endorse" the party's candidate, whoever it is.

Pataki saved his big punch for the most-talked-about Democratic contender, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying, to loud cheers and laughter, "We don't need anyone coming here from Washington to represent New York State."

Clinton was in New York again yesterday, for the third time in as many weeks. She attended several events, including a fund-raiser for Representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat from Long Island.

Lowey has said she will run for Senate if Clinton decides against the race. (She gave no hint of her intentions yesterday, though she did reconfirm that she would make her post-White House home in New York, regardless.)

The first lady came into the city with the latest polls sending mixed signals about her prospects. A Quinnipiac College poll of registered voters, released yesterday, showed her leading Giuliani, 48-42. On Sunday, a poll of likely voters, by the rival Zogby International survey firm, showed the opposite -- Giuliani leading Mrs. Clinton, 49-44.

Both polls had a 3.5 percent margin of error.