In The News: Lazio

ENDORSEMENT: Another Newspaper Endorses Lazio for Governor

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST

…”Mr. Lazio is a serious political figure, one who is capable of mounting a credible campaign in the fall against Democrat Andrew Cuomo.”

…”Most political observers believe Mr. Cuomo's election is inevitable, given his name recognition, star power and fund-raising abilities. But the general election should not be a coronation—even if it has been just that in recent gubernatorial elections. Mr. Lazio may be underfunded, but he is not without ideas and alternatives. He will make a case for himself and his party. Mr. Paladino would turn the general election into a joke.”

http://www.observer.com/2010/opinion/new-york-observers-primary-choices

ENDORSEMENT: Highlights of Two Major Endorsements for Rick Lazio

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST

Albany Times-Union
Lazio best choice for Republicans

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

"Of the two Republican candidates, he's (Lazio) the one capable of the essential task of engaging Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic front-runner, in a serious debate about how to best revive the state's economy, reduce its excessively heavy tax burden and clean up its horribly corrupt political culture"

…"There's no question that New York's government is broken. Too many people are leaving a state that no longer offers ample economic opportunity. New Yorkers feel betrayed by a self-serving political class better known these days for greed and criminality than for innovative and prudent commitment to public service."

…"Mr. Lazio's proposals to reduce spending, limit taxes and reorganize government are more reasoned ones. They show an understanding of an office that, as he says, requires more than being a "shock jock." It demands an able leader, a competent administrator, a skilled politician and, at times, a statesman"

…"The party needs to be warned that rejecting Mr. Lazio will come at its own peril. A once powerful and still serious party is in danger of reducing itself to fringe status."

http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Lazio-best-choice-for-Republicans-647449.php

NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday, September 4, 2010

OPINION

Gubernatorial Primary

…"Mr. Lazio, who also has focused on plans to create more jobs and clean up the ethical swamp in Albany, is a far better choice. We don't agree with him on numerous issues - especially his unseemly fulminating against an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero. But he provides Republicans a far more reasonable option for the November election. The party could avoid the national embarrassment of a Paladino candidacy and mount a substantive challenge to the Democratic nominee, Andrew Cuomo."

…"In the Republican primary for governor, we endorse Rick Lazio"

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/opinion/04sat1.xml

WKTV UTICA: Lazio: Marcy can be a nano-tech hot spot

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

By WKTV News

Story Updated: Aug 27, 2010 at 7:25 PM EDT
MARCY, NY (WKTV) - Marcy is starting to become synonymous with the term "nano-technology". A week after a major announcement about development on SUNYIT's campus, there are now plans for the parcel of land across the street on Edic Road.

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio spent the day with Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente and Mohawk Valley Edge leader Steve Dimeo. The trio agrees that for anything to happen on the 300 acre property, all government agencies from the federal to the state level need to be on the same page. Lazio says, if elected Governor, he'd be able to make that happen.

The former Long Island Congressman also believes this second piece of property is too valuable to let it fall out of reach.

"This is what major leading edge businesses are looking for," Lazio said. "They want access to the type of talent that will help them grow and innovate. Marcy can be one of those hot spots. And as Governor, I will be on point responsible, that our top economic development people are reporting to me personally."

Lazio went on to say that he wants this property shovel-ready in the next year or two.

Last week, NCCIT announced it will make Marcy the location for its headquarters. Bringing with it nearly 200 full and part-time jobs.

Lazio faces Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino in the Republican Primary. The winner will go on to face Attorney General, and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo in the general election.

USA TODAY OP-ED: Opposing view on Ground Zero hysteria: It's not about religion

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

Click here for the original article.

The debate over the proposed "Ground Zero
mosque" is not a debate about religion; there are
more than 100 mosques in New York City and nearly
2,000 in the country, and no one argues for a cap
on the building of mosques. There are millions of
peace-loving, patriotic Muslims across this country,
but Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf does not represent
them.

Imam Rauf, the driving force behind the proposed
mosque, has been lionized as a bridge-builder by a
few, but in light of the imam's statements over the
years, this argument falls apart. He has said that
American policies were an "accessory" to 9/11. He
has refused to condemn the terrorist group Hamas.
He has said that America has "more Muslim blood
on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of
innocent non-Muslims." Imam Rauf has gone so far
as to suggest Osama Bin Laden was "made in the
USA." Ask yourself, does this sound like a peace-
loving bridge-builder to you?

The mosque developers' plans call for an imposing
$100 million structure, but when asked, they've
refused to say whether they will take money from
Iran. In fact, he refuses to say where any of the
money is coming from. Will the money come from
hostile foreign governments? Will foreign radical
groups send money? I do not understand why
President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Andrew Cuomo
do not have the same questions that two-thirds of
Americans want answered, along with groups such
as the Anti-Defamation League.

If we take Imam Rauf and the other developers at
their word that this project is about healing and
ending divisions, then why are they so defiant about
building this $100 million dollar mosque at the
hallowed location to coincide with the decade
anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in
American history?

Former representative Rick Lazio is a Republican
candidate for governor of New York.

Click here for the original article.

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS: Rick Stands Up for New York on Hardball

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

GOOD DAY NEW YORK: Rick Discusses the Ground Zero Mosque

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

MEET THE PRESS: Rick Stands Up for New York

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Lazio Finds an Issue in Furor Over Islamic Center

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

Published: August 22, 2010

www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/nyregion/23lazio.html

At an office complex in the faded industrial town of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., recently, Rick A. Lazio, the former congressman from Long Island who is running for governor, had taken a series of standard jabs against political dysfunction in Albany and sky-high tax rates when he suddenly seemed to gain true traction with the crowd.

The issue was not the economy, or even his rival; it was the planned Muslim community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. “We do not believe in turning our back on the victims of 9/11,” he said to enthusiastic applause. As the Republican primary for the governor’s race approaches, Mr. Lazio is making his vigorous opposition to the project a centerpiece of his candidacy, assailing it on the campaign trail, testifying against it at public hearings, denouncing it in television commercials and even creating an online petition demanding an investigation into the center and its organizers. “Defend New York,” says the giant headline above the petition on his Web site.

As a dominant New York voice against the center, Mr. Lazio has attracted a burst of public attention to a campaign that had failed to gather much momentum, overshadowed by the money and muscle of his Democratic rival, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

The occasional voter has now taken to stopping Mr. Lazio in the street to urge him on, and any number of others have stocked his campaign’s Web site with letters of support made public by Mr. Lazio’s aides. “Rick’s got my vote,” wrote one New Yorker, after seeing Mr. Lazio’s latest commercial about the center.

Mr. Lazio’s relentless opposition to the project — he again attacked the imam behind it during an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” — is, above all, aimed at Republican primary voters, analysts say. But it risks alienating moderates who could prove crucial in a general election. And it certainly is infuriating many Muslim leaders, who say he is preying on the worst fears of voters; and provoking a backlash from some influential voices in the community of Sept. 11 emergency workers, who say he is exploiting the tragedy.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lazio is pushing ahead with the strategy, even breaking what has been, until now, something of an unwritten rule of politics in New York: never to use images of Sept. 11 in campaign advertisements.

Last week, Mr. Lazio released a Web advertisement critical of the mosque featuring rescue workers on Sept. 11 and a television commercial in which he appears before photos of a still-smoldering World Trade Center, questioning where the money for the planned Muslim center will come from, and declaring that Mr. Cuomo, who has defended the rights of the project’s organizers, “is very, very wrong.”

In an interview, Mr. Lazio defended his focus on the Muslim center, saying that for many New Yorkers, the memory of Sept. 11 remained raw, and that, for them, proposing a 13-story Muslim center blocks from ground zero was insensitive and even offensive.

“A lot of us have moved ahead since 2001, but for other people the memories are very vivid and very real,” he said. “And there is an incredible emotional connection to the people who had this experience: husbands, wives, children, parents, victims, all of whom were victims.”

“When they approach me,” he said, “I do feel that I have a responsibility here to raise this issue effectively and get some answers.”

Unions representing the city’s firefighters and police officers immediately demanded that Mr. Lazio pull his most recent ad, calling it an affront. Ed Mullins, the head of the city’s police sergeants’ union, called the ads “as irresponsible as they are reprehensible.”

Muslim groups, for their part, have vigorously objected to Mr. Lazio’s characterizations of the imam behind the center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, whom he calls a “terrorist sympathizer.”

Ghazi Y. Khankan, the former director of the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Mr. Lazio “should be ashamed of himself for doing these dirty tactics.”

“My God,” he added. “How low can you go?”

Some political analysts and consultants say Mr. Lazio’s critique of the planned project is designed in significant part to ward off an unexpectedly spirited challenger in Carl Paladino, a wealthy upstate conservative who has spoken out against the project in even blunter language than Mr. Lazio.

In his own commercial, Mr. Paladino vowed that, if elected, he would use the government’s power of eminent domain to force the center’s developers to find a different location.

Yet like any controversy that burns with emotion — fanned by cable television, news media and talk radio — it could flame out, losing the interest of voters who are fretting over pocketbook concerns.

“I don’t think it’s a ticket to Albany in November,” said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which has surveyed New York voters on the topic.

But for Mr. Lazio, who is woefully underfinanced compared with Mr. Cuomo — he has some $600,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s $23 million — it is a way to distinguish himself on a divisive issue.

“It’s a double-edged sword here,” said Michael Long, the chairman of the state’s Conservative Party, which has sponsored some of Mr. Lazio’s most controversial commercials on the Muslim center. “There will be people who will be more adamantly against him because of it. But there are a whole host of people who did not know about Rick Lazio who now do, and think favorably of him.”

On Sunday, as a guest on “Meet The Press,” Mr. Lazio hammered the project’s spiritual leader, Mr. Abdul Rauf. “There are millions of peace-loving good Muslims in America,” he said. “This imam, Rauf, is not one of them.”

Mr. Lazio’s criticism of the project has also included direct shots at Mr. Cuomo, who, he says, has failed to investigate the financing behind the planned $100 million center, which is to house a mosque, a restaurant, a pool and other features. “I don’t know why he is not more curious about where the money is coming from,” Mr. Lazio said on the program. “He is the state’s chief law enforcement officer.”

Mr. Cuomo would not comment for this article, but aides said that, because the developers had raised so little money, there was nothing to investigate: the most recent government filings show the organization has about $18,000. The aides added that if Mr. Lazio was serious about uncovering terrorism-related financing, he would make similar requests to the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This is not the first time that Mr. Lazio has thrust Islam into a political campaign. In his 2000 bid for the United States Senate, Mr. Lazio attacked his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for raising money from a Muslim group, some of whose members had defended the radical Islamic group Hamas.

Mrs. Clinton eventually returned the donations. But in the waning days of the campaign, Mr. Lazio’s supporters in the State Republican Party made a telephone calls to voters that linked Mrs. Clinton’s donors to the terrorism attack on an American warship in Yemen, angering many voters, who considered the tactic over the top.

Mr. Lazio said there was no connection between his campaigns in 2000 and in 2010. And he dismissed the claim that he had exploited post-Sept. 11 anxieties about Islam and terrorism. “Two-thirds of New Yorkers don’t think we should move forward with it,” he said of the proposed center. “Two-thirds of New Yorkers are not religious bigots. They are people who overwhelmingly believe in religious freedom and pluralism and diversity.”

But Muslim leaders question Mr. Lazio’s sincerity: Several wondered why, if he had questions about the center’s financing, or the religious leader who is to oversee it, he had not spoken with either the developer or the imam. At the final Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on the project, its developer, Sharif el-Gamal, tried to introduce himself to Mr. Lazio.

He said he was rebuffed. “He just looked at me and walked by,” Mr. Gamal recalled.

Mr. Lazio said no slight was intended. “I have never met the man,” he said.

Click here for the original article.

SEAN HANNITY RADIO: Rick stands up for New York

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST

Conservative Party TV Commercial: Mosque

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EST