GOP boss bashes Clinton, Spitzer
Minarik makes a fundraising pitch by targeting the Democrats
Joseph Spector
Staff writer
(March 12, 2005) — Trying to raise money for next year's elections, state Republican Chairman Stephen Minarik blasts Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a fundraising letter as having a "dangerous liberal agenda" and vows that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will be exposed "for the job killer that he is."
The letter is the latest barb by the newly elected state chairman as polls show the Democratic Clinton and Spitzer with broad support in New York. Next year, Clinton is up for re-election and Spitzer plans to run for governor.
The letter, which went out to about 10,000 Republican supporters, says Clinton is determined to run for president in 2008, but that the road to the White House goes through New York.
Republicans are urged "to get the truth out about (Clinton's) dangerous liberal agenda" and knocks her support of a bill that would allow ex-felons to vote.
"Hillary's vision of a better America is one where your vote is cancelled out by a murderer or rapist," Minarik states in the letter. "That's an outrage. It's not what Americans want in a leader, and it's not what New Yorkers need in a senator."
As for Spitzer, Minarik writes that he has been given a free ride by the liberal New York City media and has made a career out of promoting himself at the expense of New York's businesses.
Democrats responded that Minarik, who also heads the Monroe County GOP, is trying to take the focus off Republicans' poor record leading New York. Republican Gov. George Pataki has watched his approval ratings plummet in the last year.
Spitzer leads Pataki by a whopping 23 percentage points in a gubernatorial match-up next year, according to a poll Wednesday by the Siena College Research Institute. And only 24 percent of voters said they would back the governor if he runs for re-election, the poll found.
"They have to run after Hillary because they surely can't raise money on the job Pataki has done," said state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell.
Republicans are struggling to find a strong candidate to contest Clinton and have no clear heir apparent to Pataki in a state with more than 2 million more Democrats than Republicans.
But Minarik said Clinton has been a wonderful fundraising success for Republicans.
The state GOP, which had just $11,814 in the bank in January, raised $50,000 in one week after phone calls knocking Clinton were made to Republican supporters across New York. That's three times the amount they typically raise through a phone bank drive, GOP officials said.
"Hillary Clinton is the best fundraising person I have," Minarik said. "You mention Hillary Clinton's name and thousand of dollars appear."
JSPECTOR@DemocratandChronicle.com
