As He Heads Into Election’s Final Stretch, Faso Says He ‘Has No Regrets’

The Republican nominee for governor, John Faso, heads into the final week of the campaign with two new television commercials. If they succeed in turning the tide of the election, it will be one of the greatest come-from-behind victories in the history of American politics.In an interview with The New York Sun, Mr. Faso said he was marching to the finish line on November 7 harboring no regrets.“Hey, I started this race, and I’m going to finish it. On my terms, and that’s how I’m going to do it,” he said.”I’m not changing my philosophy, my arguments, my political stripes. Because I firmly believe that the agenda I’m setting forth is the best one for the people of New York.”He began his campaign in the beginning of the year by telling voters that he stands for lower taxes, limited government, and spending restraint, and that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic candidate, champions the opposite. A week before Election Day, Mr. Faso’s campaign is airing two more commercials: both are 30-second spots that feature the Republican candidate sitting upright in a tastefully decorated living room and talking to the camera about his tax cuts.Polls are pointing to a blow out. Mr. Spitzer, the Democratic nominee, has carried a lead of more than 40 percentage points the entire race. What happened to Mr. Faso’s message?It never reached the voters, Mr. Faso said, blaming “the disparity in television advertising” between his campaign and Mr. Spitzer’s. “People don’t watch debates, and they don’t read very much about campaigns. They’re interested, but they’re busy.”What happened to the gung-ho Republican county chairmen who renounced Governor Pataki’s choice of William Weld and all but lifted Mr. Faso on a chair in celebration at the convention in Long Island?“County chairmen have not, do not, and never will be the major source of funding in these statewide campaigns,” Mr. Faso said. Instead, the money comes from donors who are “philosophically attuned to the Republican position or people who are laying the odds in terms of who they think is going to win.”What about the business groups, who interests would seem aligned with Mr. Faso’s slate of tax cuts? As Mr. Spitzer’s biographer, the reporter Brooke Masters, noted in a column in yesterday’s Financial Times: “Not a single big business group has come out against Mr. Spitzer, and some, especially in New York’s job-starved northern regions, have endorsed him.”“They’re just playing the odds,” Mr. Faso said. “It’s not a statement of philosophy.”Alluding to Samuel Johnson’s quip, he compared the faith that business groups have in Mr. Spitzer to a newlywed’s faith in a second marriage, a “triumph of hope over experience.”What about the conservative tabloid, the New York Post, which enthusiastically endorsed his opponent? “Life is full of disappointments?” he said.A recent New York Times article said Mr. Faso was a victim of “unfortunate timing.” Republicans are left daydreaming about what Mr. Faso’s political fortunes might have been if he had run for comptroller against the incumbent, Alan Hevesi, who is mired in a scandal over his use of a state employee as a personal servant for his wife. Mr. Faso, who is knowledgeable about the state budget, narrowly lost to Mr. Hevesi in the comptroller’s race four years ago.“I don’t subscribe to victimology,” Mr. Faso said. “Life is full of ironies.”

As He Heads Into Election’s Final Stretch, Faso Says He ‘Has No Regrets’

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