Lazio overcoming obscurity with whirlwind tour

Beth J. Harpaz

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 8:51 a.m.

NEW YORK - Rep. Rick Lazio knows he has a lot of ground to cover to get his nascent U.S. Senate campaign up and running.

So the Long Island Congressman hit the ground running Sunday in a whirlwind tour, determined to overcome the biggest immediate obstacle in his quest to beat Hillary Rodham Clinton: his own obscurity.

Lazio flew to Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Binghamton on Sunday, stopping for about 30 minutes in each town to rally support for his Senate run. He planned to visit Elmira, Watertown, Utica, Albany and Westchester today.

Early Sunday, Lazio appeared on six television talk shows and gave the commencement address at a Long Island college.

"My challenge is to make sure that people know the real Rick Lazio before the other side gets out and tries to fool the New York people about who I am," Lazio said on CNN's "Late Edition."

While upstate, Lazio told a condensed version of his life story, introduced his wife and two daughters and credited his military parents for instilling "bedrock values" of family, work and responsibility.

He also promised to be a frequent visitor upstate, addressing a concern of voters who complained they did not see enough of the former Republican Senate front-runner, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has stepped aside.

Clinton, who spent Sunday in Albany and Troy, scolded Lazio for using his campaign announcement a day earlier to attack her as a liberal carpetbagger with political ambitions beyond the U.S. Senate.

"I was a little disappointed yesterday that my latest opponent has already started hurling insults instead of offering ideas about what we can do to improve the lives of New Yorkers," Clinton said.

Clinton's campaign adviser Harold Ickes, campaign manager Bill deBlasio and spokesman Howard Wolfson on Sunday's talk shows portrayed Lazio as a lieutenant of former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich and said his support of the Contract with America was out of step with the mainstream of New York.

Lazio defended his position rather than trying to distance himself from it.

"I don't know which one of the things on the Contract with America that they are against," Lazio told "Late Edition." "Is it the balanced budget? Is it lowering taxes? Is it a strong national defense? If that's what they're against and I'm for, I'm comfortable fighting on those grounds."

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On the Net:

Lazio campaign: http://www.lazio.com

Clinton campaign: http://www.hillary2000.org