With all the attention during the past 18 months given to the potential heavyweight general election contest for the New York Senate seat that Daniel Patrick Moynihan is leaving this year, it would be quite easy to overlook the fact that the race for the coveted open seat actually begins with today's primary election.


Indeed, although First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been regarded as the presumptive Democratic nominee since her official entry into the race earlier this year, she will actually face a challenge today for her party's nomination. Manhattan physician Mark McMahon also filed for the Democratic nod. Despite being virtually unknown to the voting population at-large, McMahon has said in recent weeks that he expects to pull off what would be an unprecedented upset. He has centered his campaign around one issue: that he is from New York State, while the First Lady only recently took up residency here.


Meanwhile, Clinton has realized that her major weakness in the race is that she is susceptible to being labeled a carpetbagger, as she grew up in Illinois and has more recently lived in Arkansas and Washington, D.C. In response, she has stepped up the pace and intensity of her campaign, cris-crossing the state numerous times in recent months. She has given no indication that she plans on taking anything for granted during this campaign, be it a primary or a particular constituency. And she has consistently discussed her stands on key issues.


We cannot say the same of her opponent in the primary, and for that matter, of the lone Republican candidate in the race, Rep. Rick Lazio of Suffolk County, who has given voters little reason to support him other than that he is not the First Lady. For these reasons, we endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton in today's Senate primary. We urge all Cornellians who are registered to vote in New York to head to the polls, if only to play a part in history as, for the first time in American history, a first lady will appear on a ballot as a candidate for political office.

Archived article by Sun Staff