Spitzer, Clinton Seen As Easy Winners In Primary
BY JOHN TOSCANO F
From all indications, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are

From all indications, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are virtually certain to walk off with Democratic Party nominations.

virtually certain to walk off with

Democratic Party nominations for governor and senator, respectively, in next Tuesday's primaries. The two are also heavy favorites to win their races in November.

Spitzer is opposed by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who's trailing far behind in the polls, while Clinton will oppose the winner of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate nomination.

However, the other statewide contest on the ballot, a four-way race to become Democratic candidate for attorney general, looks to be a close call between Andrew Cuomo, the favorite, and Mark Green, his principal challenger. Charles King and Sean Patrick Maloney are reasonably certain to be bringing up the rear.

Republicans also have a statewide primary, this one bestowing the dubious distinction of Republican candidate to take on the heavily favored Clinton in the November 7 general election.

The rival Republican candidates are Kathleen Troia (K.T.) McFarland of Manhattan and John Spencer, the former mayor of Yonkers.

The Democratic attorney general primary and the McFarland-Spencer contests are covered in separate stories elsewhere in this special election section.

Democratic primary elections in six state senate and Assembly districts are also covered elsewhere in this section. The contests are:

13th state senate (Jackson Heights/Corona)-incumbent Senator John Sabini versus Councilmember Hiram Monserrate.

10th state senate (Jamaica)-incumbent Senator Ada L. Smith versus Shirley Huntley of Jamaica.

22nd Assembly District (Flushing)- Ellen Young versus Julia Harrison, both of Flushing.

25th Assembly District (Flushing)- Morshed Alam versus Rory I. Lancman.

39th Assembly District (Corona)- incumbent Assemblymember Jose Peralta versus Carmen F. Enriquez of Elmhurst.

The final Queens primary on the relatively short ballot is between two Republicans in the 28th Assembly District (Rego Park/Forest Hills)-Doloras Maddis versus Walter E. Schmidt, both first-time office seekers from Rego Park. The winner will face Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills).

There will also be many contests on the ballot for party positions such as district leaders and state and county committee slots.

In the Democratic primary for governor, the polls have had Spitzer far ahead of Suozzi from the beginning of the campaign. Spitzer has also taken in many millions more in contributions than Suozzi, giving the Nassau official no chance to mount a television advertising campaign to try to cut into Spitzer's lead.

At the most recent campaign finance reporting period earlier this month, Spitzer had about $14 million in the bank after spending about $3.5 million during July while also raising another $1 million. In contrast, Suozzi raised only $129,000 between July and early August, spent more than $1 million and had a balance of only $1.8 million in early August.

Suozzi is down in the polls by about 60 percentage points at this time, and was asked by some Democrats to quit the race against Spitzer and join in the effort to elect the statewide ticket and Democrats running for other offices. But Suozzi vowed to stay the course and keep campaigning against Spitzer. "I'm absolutely committed to finishing this race," Suozzi told reporters.

Spitzer and Suozzi both propose to enact a tax cut if they become governor. Spitzer has also at various points in his campaign listed his priorities as reviving the statewide economy by improving conditions for businesses to prosper, reforming the education and healthcare systems and reforming the state government.

Among the changes he would pursue in changing the state government structure are appointing an independent redistricting commission to establish legislative districts, rather than the legislators, and calling for meritbased judicial appointments, rather than having political bosses dictate them.

Suozzi, meanwhile, has called for increases in education aid by as much as $5 billion, with half of that amount going to New York City and the remainder to school districts with the highest property tax burdens.

Both candidates called for a lid on pension increases for government workers if the local municipalities that must pay for them cannot afford them.

Democrats started to flock to Spitzer early this year when he let it be known he was going to seek the governor's chair after Governor George Pataki had held it for 12 years. By this time, Spitzer had established himself as a Wall Street nemesis after launching an investigation of the mutual fund industry in 2003.

On several occasions during the campaign, Wall Street firms caught up in the Spitzer net announced settlements of cases in order to avoid criminal prosecutions.

Despite the uncompetitive nature of the Spitzer-Suozzi contest, Democrats throughout the state are expected to turn out at the polls on Tuesday in large numbers to send Spitzer into the race against Republican challenger John Faso with flying colors.