WILL LAZIO’S MONEY WOES LEAD TO A PALADINO WIN?

What’s new in gubernatorial politics?…Well, this week endorsed Republican candidate for governor Rick Lazio reported in official filings that his campaign has only $688,000 in the bank. That means Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the endorsed Democratic nominee for governor, has a roughly 34-to-1 cash advantage over Rick, with a record $23.6 million in the AG’s campaign account.

Even more troubling for state-wide Republicans is the fact that Cuomo is receiving donations from Republican stalwarts, including WNY’s own former GOP US Attorney and former NYS Attorney General Dennis Vacco who donated $1,000 to Andrew, possibly as part of his role as an Albany lobbyist. In fact, Lazio’s financial condition is so bad that the former Long Island Congressman had to lend his campaign $200,000 just to avoid ending the filing period spending more money than he took in.

As a result, some observers are now saying that Lazio’s lack of funding could render him vulnerable to a Carl Paladino Republican primary challenge that could be financed with $10 million in the local developer’s own funds. Still, the Lazio campaign doesn’t see it that way.

“Following Rick’s commanding reception at the state convention, we had a dramatic increase in fund-raising, which brings our total amount raised to well over $3 million,” Barney Keller, the campaign’s spokesman, said recently. “Seventy percent of the contributors have come in the last six months. We expect our fund-raising pace to continue to increase.”

The one fiscal bright spot for Empire State Republicans is the candidacy of former hedge fund manager Harry Wilson for state comptroller. He has more than twice as much money in his campaign coffers as Lazio and, much more important, considerably more than the incumbent comptroller, Democrat Thomas DiNapoli.