STATEWIDE

COX SAYS HE WON’T RUN AGAINST CLINTON

New York lawyer Ed Cox yesterday said he won’t rejoin the Senate race despite appeals from top state Republicans to fight Senator Clinton’s re-election. Mr. Cox, who is President Nixon’s son-in-law, quit the Senate race in October last year after Governor Pataki endorsed Jeanine Pirro. Mrs. Pirro has since withdrawn from the Senate race to run for attorney general. With Mrs. Pirro out of the race, the state Republican chairman, Stephen Minarik, and other state Republicans asked Mr. Cox to reconsider his withdrawal, but Mr. Cox refused, saying in a statement: “After careful consideration of the circumstances and conditions as they exist surrounding the current race, including the shortened time frame available to run an aggressive and effective campaign, I will not seek my party’s nomination.” The primary Republican contender for the 2006 senator race is a former Yonkers mayor, John Spencer, though polls show him trailing Mrs. Clinton by a large margin.

– Special to the Sun

VOTING MACHINE VENDORS SPENT $1.47M LOBBYING LEGISLATURE SINCE ’02

Voting machine vendors spent $1.47 million lobbying the state Legislature since 2002, a political advocacy group said yesterday. The New York chapter of the na tional organization, Common Cause, said the vendors lobbied the state and local Boards of Elections, the executive branch, and other lawmakers to certify their systems for use in the state. Rather than selecting one system, the state has opt ed to create a list of certified machines that local voting districts can choose from “It raises concerns that the continued lobbying by these companies is impacting the choices the state and local Boards are making.This is too important a decision to be decided by insiders with a profit motive rather than by the public that will be voting on these machines for generations to come,” the executive director of Common Cause/NY, Rachel Leon, said in a statement. The Board of Elections de clined to comment yesterday.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

STEELERS OWNER TO BE GRAND MARSHAL OF ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE

The grand marshal of the 245th New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and president of Yonkers Raceway, Timothy Rooney. Mr. Rooney, whose family comes from County Down in Northern Ireland was officially installed at a ceremony with dignitaries from the Irish community at the New York Athletic Club Tuesday night. This year’s parade, starting at 11 a.m. on March 17, is dedicated to 19 soldiers from the 69th Regiment – known as the “Irish Brigade” – who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The regiment just returned from spending 11 months in Iraq.

– Special to the Sun

TRISTATE

PORT AUTHORITY TESTS SMART CARDS ON PATH TRAINS

Easier than a swipe, the new Smart Cards being tested by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on PATH trains require only a cursory bump against a scanner to enter train stations. The Port Authority is the first of a tri-agency initiative to begin to phase in a metro fare system similar to the E-Z Pass system on toll ways. As part of a pilot program, Port Authority employees and groups of senior citizens have been given the small green cards to access PATH trains. Eventually, the cards will be linked to personal accounts like the E-Z Pass system. If the pilot program is successful, the Port Authority is planning to put Smart Cards into full effect in May or June, a Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman, said The Metropolitan Transport Authority and New Jersey Transit have yet to be gin implementing the Smart Card system. The three agencies signed an agreement in September to cooperate in phasing in a compatible system.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN JUMPS IN FRONT OF N TRAIN IN BROOKLYN

A man jumped in front of a train at the Fort Hamilton Parkway Station in Brooklyn and died instantly yester day morning, police officials said. Paramedics pronounced the unidentified man dead on the scene at 9:17 a.m., police said. Police were waiting to notify his family last night before releasing his name. Northbound N trains were rerouted from Stillwell Avenue station to the 36th Street station on the D line for more than an hour, a spokesman for the New York City Transit Authority said. Southbound trains were not affected.

– Special to the Sun