Politics

N.Y. Senate Race Tightens Up

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 31, 2000 / 12:11 PM EST / CBS

Three new polls show no clear leader as the Senate campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio geared up for their final push.

Two polls have Clinton and Lazio in a statistical tie, with a third showing him with a razor-thin lead. One of the surveys indicated the slim lead Clinton has held over Lazio for the past month was slipping.

A poll released Wednesday by Marist College showed Clinton at 50 percent and Lazio at 46 percent among 516 likely voters. That gap is within the poll's margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. An Oct. 13 Marist poll also had the two in a statistical tie.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday had Clinton at 47 percent and Lazio at 44 percent, also statistically even. Its Oct. 18 poll had Clinton leading, 50 percent to 43 percent.

A Zogby International tracking poll published on Wednesday in the New York Post had Lazio slightly ahead of the first lady, 48 percent to 43 percent. That poll of 681 likely voters had a 4-point margin of error.

The latest CBS News-New York Times Poll, released on Monday, showed Clinton with 49-41 percent lead over Lazio.

Amid the roller-coaster poll results, Clinton picked up an endorsement from the New York Daily News on Wednesday.

The day before, Clinton accused Lazio of distorting issues as he renewed criticism of her connection to campaign donor Abdurahman Alamoudi, a reputed supporter of the Palestinian organization Hamas. The State Department has branded Hamas a terrorist organization because of its attacks on Israeli civilians.

Clinton has returned $1,000 that Alamoudi, once invited to a White House reception to celebrate a Muslim feast, gave to her campaign this year.

"I think it's wrong, and I think it reflects a sort of pattern of behavior on the part of Mrs. Clinton, where she invites people to the White House who believe terrorism's a legitimate tool," Lazio said in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Clinton, speaking after an event with Jewish senior citizens in Brooklyn, said: "At the end of an election it's tempting for a campaign to take something and twist it and try to use it to drive up people's fears."

The state Republican Party last week made telephone calls telling thousands of voters that Clinton took money from an organization that claimed to support Mideast terrorism. The calls said similar terrorism was responsible for the USS Cole explosion, which killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Complaining about the calls, Clinton said Tuesday: "What we're seeing here is the most crass kind of effort to divert attention from the real issues in this campaign."

Last week Clinton returned $50,000 raised at an event attended by Boston-area Muslims after learning that the American Muslim Alliance took credit for organizing it. Some AMA members have been quoted defending the use of violence against Israel.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a coalitioof eight American Muslim and Arab groups, released a statement Tuesday condemning Lazio for "anti-Muslim bigotry" and a "deceptively worded" phone campaign.