Positions on debating, the mosque & teacher tenure
GEDDES -- Republican Rick Lazio says he doesn't want to debate primary challenger Carl Palladino because he's already gotten his party's endorsement: he says he needs to focus on the 'main event'--Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Lazio stopped at our State Fair broadcast area for an interview, and said he wants to campaign on the issues of more jobs, less taxes, and less government corruption. He says most New Yorkers don't want to see the likes of the four state-wide officials they elected four years ago, including Cuomo.
He also defended his current campaign ads opposing a mosque near Manhattan's Ground
Zero, saying most people agree with him, and that the Imam who is proposing the project has questionable financial ties, and has spoken negatively about the United States.
On another topic, the candidate says he's happy NY is getting Race to the Top federal education moneys, though he would have been ok with more restrictions on them---including ending tenure for teachers as a way of improving classroom quality.
And, we asked if he'd had a sausage sandwich in his Fair visit---Lazio told us he didn't eat ahead of coming on the grounds to have room for one. In his senatorial campaign against Hillary Clinton, in 2000, he refused to eat a Fair sausage sandwich, which is believed to have lost him Upstate votes. Tonight, he says he loves the Fair's food---including the sausage sandwich.
