Just before 11 p.m., with 51 percent of precincts counted, Clinton had 1,698,421 votes, or 54 percent; Republican Rep. Rick Lazio had 1,423,562 votes, or 45 percent, CBS News reported.
"Wow! This is amazing," Mrs. Clinton told supporters in New York City, after a rousing introduction by Sen. Charles Schumer. "Sixty-two counties, three debates, two opponents and six black pantsuits later, because of you, here we are."
"You came out and said that issues and ideals matter," said Mrs. Clinton, with President Clinton and daughter Chelsea by her side.
"She overcame the skeptics, and worked and worked and won," Schumer said.
"I feel like the Mets," Lazio said in his concession speech, invoking last month's World Series. "We came in second."
"Hillary has articulated the issues that the voters of New York care
about: health care, education and creating one New York," former Clinton
administration official Sidney Blumenthal told United Press International.
"She's not interested in dividing New York into antagonistic groups. She's
somebody who brings people together, and clearly tonight she brought a
majority of New Yorkers together."
Clinton, who moved to Chappaqua, N.Y., in January, waged the longest
Senate race in the Empire State – more than 18 months, facing two
Republican opponents. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had raised about
$19 million for his bid for the seat being vacated by Democrat Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan. He dropped out of the race on May 19 in the wake of a
pending separation from his wife and his diagnosis of
prostate cancer.
Republican Rep. Rick Lazio jumped into the race on May 20 based on the
campaign theme of "Anybody but Hillary." Although the first lady had a head
start in campaigning and fund raising by more than a year, Lazio, unknown in
the state outside his native Long Island, quickly caught up, and the race
remained close for most of the campaign.
The New York race was historic in another way: the amount of money
raised and spent. Each candidate spent $30 million, with Lazio outpacing the
first lady's fund raising toward the end of the campaign. He raised $11.2
million in September to Clinton's $2.9 million.
Lazio made Clinton's character the focus of his campaign, and he called
her a carpetbagger. Clinton promised to work to improve upstate New York's
stagnant economy and to support a new prescription drug benefit for
Medicare.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in New York by a
margin of 9-5. To win a statewide election, a Republican needs to do
significantly well upstate and in the New York City suburbs to offset the
Democrat vote in New York City.
However, the first lady enjoyed a strong turnout in New York
City, and she did better than expected upstate. She also did well with women.
Perhaps the issue that resonated the most with upstate voters was the
suffering upstate economy. Clinton hammered at this issue continuously while
Lazio said, at first, that the upstate economy "had turned the corner."
Lazio had been reluctant to acknowledge the problems of the upstate
economy, because it would reflect badly on fellow Republican Gov. George
Pataki. Pataki won a close race in 1994 against 12-year Democrat
incumbent Gov. Mario Cuomo. While the downstate economy has thrived, the
upstate economy has been in a tailspin for the past 20 years, after factories closed.
Three major upstate papers – the Buffalo News, the Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle, and the Albany Times Union – all endorsed Clinton.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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