The state GOP committee voted today to nominate former Congressman Rick Lazio as its candidate for governor, while keeping Democrat-turned-Republican off the ballot after he failed to garner enough votes.
Nearly 60 percent of the GOP faithful gathered at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers voted to make Lazio their standard-bearer in the race against Democrat Andrew Cuomo in November.
Lazio served in Congress from 1993 to 2001 and lost to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the US Senate race in 2000.
Levy, the Suffolk County executive favored by party Chairman Ed Cox, came in second with 28 percent.
In a separate balloting process because he’s a Democrat, Levy only got 42 percent of the vote — below the 51 percent he needed to challenge Lazio in a primary.
Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, who has pledged to petition his way onto the ballot, got eight percent. Westchester businessman M. Meyers Mermel, a late entry into the race, received four percent.
The showing by Levy was not as strong as some supporters had predicted, dealing a blow to the embattled Cox.
brendan.scott@nypost.com