A Republican candidate for governor, William Weld, yesterday characterized the design for the ground zero memorial as a “hole in the ground,” but said he would be diplomatic when it came to negotiations over the future of the World Trade Center development site.

For a candidate who has largely stuck to dry themes about the need to reform Albany and to slash spending and taxes, Mr. Weld’s remarks about the planned memorial were a candid departure. They also marked one of the few times the former governor of Massachusetts has carved out a position against Governor Pataki, whose endorsement he seeks.

Asked about his views on ground zero development at a forum hosted by the New York Building Congress, which represents the construction and design industries, Mr. Weld said the memorial design left him confused. “I don’t happen to get the idea of a hole in the ground as a memorial,” he said, but added that he didn’t want to “second guess” design plans or cause further delay by demanding changes.

His opponent in the contest for the Republican nomination, John Faso, who also spoke at the event, refrained from criticizing the design but called the cost of the memorial, estimated at almost $1 billion, “unbelievable.”

Mr. Pataki, asked about Mr. Weld’s remarks, defended the memorial project, which consists of 1-acre reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers. Surrounded by waterfalls, the pools have square “voids” under which visitors can walk and read the names of victims.

“I think it’s appropriate that where the towers stood we have the voids and we have the reflecting pools so people can appreciate the magnitude of what we lost,” Mr. Pataki said. He added: “People are entitled to their opinion and to express their opinion.”

Mr. Pataki was in Manhattan yesterday to attend the convention of the Conservative Party, which nominated John Faso for governor. Republicans and Conservatives who attended speculated about the demise of the Weld campaign, which is heading into the Republican convention with an uncertain level of support from delegates. Mr. Faso, in contrast, has made gains in opinion polls while winning endorsements from key county chairmen. Political insiders say the two candidates at the moment are neck-and-neck.

Confidence in the Faso campaign is apparently not shared by one of the most powerful Republicans in the state, the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, who told his colleagues in a private meeting on Monday that he thought Mr. Weld would “poll better” than Mr. Faso, a Senate source said.

Mr. Faso yesterday unveiled his running mate, C. Scott Vanderhoef, the four-term Rockland County executive who is to the left of Mr. Faso on social issues, including abortion, but like Mr. Faso favors a reduction of taxes and Medicaid spending to ease the burden on property owners. Mr. Vanderhoef, who has in the past expressed support for Mr.Weld, said Mr. Faso, a former assemblyman and lobbyist, is more in touch with the “grassroots”of the state.

Political observers said the choice of Mr.Vanderhoef could help Mr. Faso attract votes from downstate New Yorkers who might otherwise be turned off by his right-wing views.

On the Democratic side, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday used the opportunity of announcing a settlement with two title insurance companies to introduce a policy initiative that would scrap the high fixed rates that New Yorkers pay for title insurance. The Insurance Department for decades has set the rate for title insurance, Mr. Spitzer said, leading to the highest costs in the country.

“We believe in competition, we believe in the market,” Mr. Spitzer said. “We should, at a minimum, ask the question of whether we should not discard this administrative structure. … That has eliminated all competition.”

Yesterday, he announced that First American Title Insurance Company and Fidelity National Title Group Incorporated had agreed to reduce title insurance rates by 15% for all properties worth up to $1 million in New York. Mr. Spitzer estimated that this will lead homeowners to save an average of several hundred dollars on their property purchase. Both firms also agreed, he said, to pay a $2 million penalty as part of a probe into the insurance title industry, which he said “desperately needed some scrutiny.” For years, Mr. Spitzer charged, real estate developers have found a way around high instate rates, by bargaining with insurance companies to have discounted title insurance in other states.

The title insurance industry in New York is a $1 billion a year market, he said.