ALBANY – A Republican candidate for governor of New York, Patrick Manning, is accusing another Republican gubernatorial candidate, John Faso, of threatening, through a campaign staffer, to expose that Mr. Manning is getting a divorce.

The threat, Mr. Manning said, was that the divorce would be exposed publicly unless Mr. Manning dropped out of the race for governor.

Mr. Manning’s allegation, which will likely have an impact on the political aspirations of both candidates who are aggressively pursuing the backing of Conservative Party leaders, was flatly denied by Mr. Faso, a former minority leader of the Assembly.

Mr. Faso, speaking to The New York Sun, said Mr. Manning’s allegation was a “desperate” rant coming from a “desperate candidate,” and said, “Patrick makes up a lot of things like that.”

Mr. Manning, 40, told the Sun that a staffer from Mr. Faso’s campaign approached someone from his own campaign yesterday and threatened to disclose that Mr. Manning and his wife had become separated. He also said there was a whispering campaign against him about his divorce that preceded the threat.

Mr. Manning, a six-term assemblyman from Dutchess County who is said to be the tallest elected public office holder in the country, would not identify the Faso staffer who he says approached his campaign with the threat. Other aides to Mr. Manning also said they were unable to name the staffer.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Manning described himself as “shocked” and said he didn’t know why “Faso felt he had to go to this extreme.”

He said, “My children are going to have to read about it in tomorrow’s newspaper.”

The accusation comes as both candidates, along with William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts and Randy Daniels, a former New York secretary of state, were here today to attend the Conservative Party’s annual conference at the Marriott hotel. Securing the nomination of the party, the fourth largest in the state, is perceived as a crucial step toward gaining the Republican nomination and winning in the November general election.

Mr. Manning, who has little support in the governor’s race among Republican Party leaders and has a significantly smaller campaign war chest than his rivals, has been counting on an endorsement from the Conservative Party to breathe life into his campaign. His January campaign finance filings showed that he had spent $30,000, slightly more than the $28,000 he had raised.

In recent days, he has attacked Mr. Faso for his work as an Albany lobbyist, making the claim that a lobbyist cannot be a credible candidate for governor, particularly in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Mr. Manning has also said that he has been told by the executive director of the state Republican Party, Ryan Moses, that Mr. Faso is “unacceptable” to the party because of his background as a lobbyist.

“There are a lot of rumors and speculations,” Mr. Moses said, “some things true; some things not true. As a party, we will continue moving forward in our process of working with the leaders of the party throughout the state to select our slate.”

Mr. Faso, who joined the law firm, Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, after narrowly losing the state comptroller’s race in 2002, was a registered lobbyist until this year.

Conservative Party leaders have said Mr. Faso and Mr. Manning have the best shots at getting the party’s endorsement, and the chairman of the party, Michael Long, has given Mr. Faso a slight edge.

While Mr. Manning has endorsements from more counties, Mr. Faso has backing from counties with higher numbers of registered Conservative voters.

Both candidates hold the most conservative views on social issues among Republican gubernatorial contestants and have pressed for restraining state spending and for cutting taxes.

Mr. Manning, a real estate broker who has two children, ages 8 and 13, said he is in the process of getting a divorce and said the proceedings had begun long before the alleged threat was made. He is married to Barbara Manning.

“If divorce was a disqualification from public service,” Mr. Manning said, “then at least half the legislators around the country would be disqualified.”

He cited Ronald Reagan as an example of a successful politician whose divorce did not affect his popularity.