September 8, 2000

Lazio Endorsed by PBA

By JOEL SIEGEL
Daily News Senior Political Correspondent

Rick Lazio won a rare union endorsement yesterday — from the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association — and used the occasion to cast himself as willing to "break ranks, cross party lines and show independence" from fellow Republicans.

The 27,000-member PBA became just the second major union — the other was the correction officers' union — to back the Suffolk County congressman over Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Standing with Lazio outside City Hall, PBA boss Patrick Lynch praised the Republican as someone "who has stood by law enforcement time and time again" and "does not support a federal monitor" to oversee the Police Department.

Lynch hit the First Lady as someone who jumps "on the bandwagon of criticism unreasonably" against cops. He singled out her calling the police killing of Amadou Diallo a "murder." Clinton later called the comment a mistake and apologized.

Accepting the endorsement, Lazio went out of his way — to a degree not yet seen in his candidacy — to portray himself as one who does not march in lockstep with Republicans in Congress.

A Lazio aide maintained there was no deliberate shift in strategy. But polls show Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush stumbling in New York, where Democrats have a 2 million-voter registration edge. Clinton has renewed a strategy of highlighting Lazio's role as a deputy House whip under controversial former Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Lazio touted how he broke with his party to support the ban on assault weapons; the Brady bill, which requires a waiting period to purchase handguns, and President Clinton's 1994 crime bill, which provided funds for 100,000 new cops nationwide.

"I think it's a proper question to ask: 'Where was Mrs. Clinton when we were trying to put that together?'" Lazio said of the crime bill.

"She was nowhere to be found. I was a freshman member of the minority [party] negotiating, crossing party ranks, showing independence, getting the job done, and that has benefited New York."

Lazio acknowledged that after supporting the crime bill, he repeatedly backed a GOP plan to allow localities to use the money for other law enforcement purposes instead of hiring police.

Clinton opposes that effort and favors a Democratic plan to provide funding for 50,000 additional police officers.

As for the Clinton administration's push for a federal monitor, Lazio said, "This city can govern itself ... [without] anybody from Washington, D.C., coming in and telling us how to run New York City or how to run New York State."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said of the endorsement, "As usual, it's hard to figure out where Rick Lazio stands. He says he supports the police, but in 1995, he followed Gingrich's lead and voted to eliminate the 100,000-cops-on-the-beat program.

"Hillary apologized for her one misstatement. When will Rick Lazio apologize for his eight years of bad votes?"