Albany Watch

   GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio had some kind words for Democratic Gov. David Paterson but not Attorney General Andrew Cuomo during a speech to the state Conservative Party this morning. Paterson has announced he is running for a four-year term.

   Cuomo, also a Democrat, is believed to be a candidate but has not announced yet.   During a 25-minute speech to Conservative Party members, Lazio noted that Cuomo spoke at the meeting last year and promised to reach across the aisle and lay the groundwork for reforming Albany.

   “Andrew Cuomo left this conference a year ago and rather than provide the kind of inspired leadership that this state is hungry for, he locked himself in his office and watched as Albany burned,” Lazio said, referring to corruption scandals, the state’s deficit and other issues.

   He accused the attorney general of being “out of touch,” “unresponsive” and “unaccountable.”

   “Ladies and gentlemen you can’t lead from a foxhole. It’s time that the people of New York hear less about the politics of Andrew Cuomo running for public office and more about his ideas for holding public office,” Lazio said at an Albany hotel, and Conservative Party members clapped loudly.

   “The conventional wisdom is that Andrew Cuomo is going to be the next governor of New York state, but we’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we,” said Lazio, referring to Republican Scott Brown’s recent defeat of state Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, in a special race for Edward Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat.

   Cuomo spokesman Richard Bamberger responded to Lazio’s comments with this statement:

   “While the Conservative Party politicians have started their campaigns, the Attorney General is focused on his public service representing the people of the State by fighting corruption and greed on Wall Street and rooting out waste and abuse in government.  Today, for example, the Attorney General announced a new nationwide agreement with Citibank that protects more than a million consumers who were promised ‘free checking’ and forces Citibank to live up to its commitments.”

   Lazio said Paterson, whose poll numbers are much lower than Cuomo’s, is a “nice man” who deserves respect “for laying out the issues and being honest about the scope of the problem” in the state.

   “At least David Paterson has the character to sort of step forward, announce that he’s a candidate, take positions on the issues and get involved, so I respect him for that,” Lazio, a former U.S. representative from Long Island, told reporters after the speech.

   In his speech, Lazio said Albany’s “ruling party”—Democrats—have failed to create private-sector jobs, reduce taxes, get spending under control, reduce fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system and provide “ethical leadership to restore faith in government.”

   Lazio said he would turn around Albany as governor. He would “apply the private-sector discipline to the public sector” and downsize state government, veto “irresponsible spending” bills and reject mandates for local governments that don’t have money attached to pay for them, he said. He pledged to “rework the patently unfair” Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax, which affects employers in all the counties that belong to the MTA, including the northern suburbs and Long Island.

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