Daniels To Run As Conservative If He Loses Primary
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In a move that could hurt Republican chances to hold onto the governor’s office, GOP candidate Randy Daniels has promised to run as the Conservative Party’s nominee if he loses the Republican nomination.
The state GOP chairman, Stephen Minarik, who is backing the rival GOP gubernatorial candidacy of the former governor of Massachusetts, Bill Weld, immediately denounced the move as “just wrong” and said yesterday that it raises serious questions about Mr. Daniels’s commitment to the GOP.
Mr. Daniels has emphasized his conservative credentials in his Republican campaign for governor in 2006. And while Mr. Weld, a native New Yorker, and a potential candidate, billionaire Thomas Golisano, have gained some support from Republican leaders, their positions on social issues, such as support for abortion rights, has made Conservative Party leaders leery.
No Republican running for statewide office in New York has won without Conservative Party support since 1974.
“If I were the nominee of the Conservative Party, and after losing a Republican primary were on the Conservative line alone, I would run a vigorous, hard-fought campaign and use every avenue open to me to promote my candidacy to the voters of New York,” Mr. Daniels said in a letter to Conservative Party leaders dated Tuesday.