Hillary Shows Confidence
N E W Y O R K, Oct. 17 -- — Despite being a cautious campaigner, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is acknowledging her status as front-runner in New York’s Senate race.
At a dinner last week, Mrs. Clinton publicly noted her lead in the polls, and with only 21 days to go in a contentious campaign against her Republican rival, Rep. Rick Lazio, it now seems increasingly possible that for the first time in history a first lady will gain elected office.
To borrow Mrs. Clinton’s favorite word when greeting New York audiences, the first lady seems downright “delighted” with her status as front-runner.
On the eve of her 25th wedding anniversary last week, Mrs. Clinton broke into a 10-second belly laugh when asked about the secret to a long marriage. “Stamina,” the first lady replied, using a word that could also apply to her grueling, 15-month campaign.
And Mrs. Clinton’s advisers, who have fluctuated between defensive and overwhelmed during the last 15 months, now radiate coolness just short of arrogance.
“We know this race is going to be close, but it’s nice to hit the big five-oh,” Mrs. Clinton’s communications director, Howard Wolfson, said after a Quinnipiac University poll on Sept. 27 gave Mrs. Clinton a 50 percent - 43 percent lead over Lazio.
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While Lazio insists the polls don’t reflect the grassroots support he encounters on the campaign trail, his four-month-old campaign seems hindered by the same drawback that hobbled the first lady early in her candidacy — mainly, conflicting advice offered to a naturally cautious candidate who doesn’t have the experience of running a statewide race.
“I think, barring some completely idiotic behavior on her part, she is now running a first-class campaign and is going to win,” said Tony Bullock, chief of staff for the man Mrs. Clinton and Lazio both hope to succeed, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Mrs. Clinton used the retiring Democratic senator’s home in upstate New York to launch her “listening tour” last summer.
Bullock says that by contrast, Lazio has managed to run a campaign that is the “political equivalent of Seinfeld … It’s really a campaign about nothing.”
Bullock also believes Mrs. Clinton’s first opponent, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, would have been a “whole lot more trouble.” Giuliani dropped out of the race in May, citing the need to treat his prostate cancer.
According to Bullock, the key to Mrs. Clinton’s success is that, unlike Lazio, “She has listened to good advice from people who know New York. The most important person in the room is the reporter from the Poughkeepsie Journal, not Tim Russert or Tucker Carlson.”
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