It’s less than a month before Primary Day in New York and GOP conven tion-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio is rapidly losing ground to challenger Carl Paladino of Buffalo.
According to the latest Siena College poll, Lazio’s 20-point lead over the gadfly businessman, registered a month ago, has shrunk to 13 points, 43-30.
And in recent days Paladino has been endorsed by several upstate GOP county chairmen and such elected officials as Assemblywoman Jane Corwin of Nia-
gara.
Yes, there’s a regional element to some of this — Paladino is something of a hero in the Buffalo area — but that alone can’t explain why Lazio, who’s been around New York politics in one form or another for more than 20 years, can scarcely break 40 percent support from his party.
Maybe it’s because Paladino talks about issues relevant to people.
On Thursday, for example, he encouraged state workers to help identify blatant examples of waste and those scamming the system.
Lazio is barely saying anything.
What could he be talking about?
Well, the Empire Center, an Albany watchdog, reports that the city of Buffalo has recently paid as much as $2 million in health-insurance premiums for dead city workers — some of whom have been deceased for years.
It’s a local issue, but it speaks directly to a huge problem — public-sector unions that, broadly speaking, game the system and leave private-sector workers to foot the bill.
But there’s barely a peep on such matters from Lazio, who doesn’t even appear to want to debate Paladino: He said last week that setting up a debate would be “up to my campaign staff to decide.”
Time’s a-wasting.
As improbable as it seemed just a few weeks ago, Paladino could deliver unto Lazio a humiliation on a par with that suffered by GOP Chairman Ed Cox and his favorite for governor, party-switching Nassau County Executive Steve Levy.
And rightly so.