Clinton, Spitzer score huge primary victories

By FRITZ MAYER

NEW YORK STATE — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton easily rode to victory, as expected, in her effort to become the democratic nominee for the U.S. senate for the second time. In the primary race on Tuesday, September 12, Clinton bested democratic challenger Jonathan Tasini. He challenged Clinton as an anti-war candidate, but he had little cash, and very little name recognition, and was unable to pay for television commercials to get his message out. Going into the vote, polls put Clinton ahead by 78 percent to 16 percent. Unofficial estimates put the vote at 83 percent to 17 percent.

Clinton will now face John Spencer in the election on November 6. Spencer, the former mayor of Yonkers, won the Republican party primary. He was running against Kathleen McFarland, a pentagon official under President Ronald Reagan. The vote was 60 to 40 perecent. Polls had Spencer leading McFarland by as much as 23 points. But those same polls showed either candidate losing to Clinton by as much as 30 points in November.

In the race to become the Democratic candidate for governor, attorney general Elliot Spitzer scored a decisive and much anticipated victory over his Democratic rival, Nassau County executive Tom Suozzi. Most political observers have been saying for months that Spitzer is almost unbeatable in his quest for the governor’s office. Suozzi was unable to attract many supporters and even fewer campaign dollars for his effort. Going into primary day, polls put Spitzer ahead by as much as 79 percent to 14 percent. Unofficial results gave Spitzer that same advatage in the vote. Spitzer will now face Republican John Faso, a fomer minority leader of the assembly, in November.

There was a three-way contest in the race to become the democratic candidate for attorney general. Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario Cuomo and a former federal housing secretary, fended off bitter campaign attacks from Mark Green, a former public advocate for New York City. Sean Patrick Maloney was the third democrat in the race, though he trailed far behind the other two. Polls running up to primary day put Cuomo far ahead of Green by 53 percent to 31 percent. Unofficial estimates put the vote at at about the same levels for Cuomo, and Green. Cuomo will face Republican Jeanine Pirro in November.

The only contested primary race in Sullivan County was for a councilman seat in the Town of Thompson, where Michael Bernstein was running against Moniquka Diaz Corley. Unofficial estimates show Bernstein with 273 votes and Corley with 277.