By NYO Staff

June 13, 1999 | 8:00 p.m

According to the secret grumblings of top Albany insiders, the last

place Gov. George Pataki intended to be on June 3 was the New York Sheraton, where two newly declared enemies of the state were throwing a fund-raising bash for the Republican Party's state committee. Mr. Pataki reportedly was boycotting the event because James Ortenzio and Georgette Mosbacher, two of the state's most prolific Republican fund-raisers, are helping Mayor Rudolph Giuliani raise money for his prospective U.S. Senate campaign. If you've been following the continuing story of George and Rudy, the one entitled: "Only One of Us Gets Out of Here Alive, Sucker," you know that there are people in Albany who are not particularly enthusiastic about the Mayor's Federal ambitions. And they told the New York Post 's Fredric U. Dicker, whose Inside Albany column is the Daily Racing Form of state politics, that Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher had been placed "on Mr. Pataki's new 'enemies list'" because of their efforts on the Mayor's behalf. The insiders gleefully noted that Mr. Pataki, or somebody close to him, had declined to let the state G.O.P. committee use his name in soliciting contributions for the Sheraton event, and that neither Ms. Mosbacher nor Mr. Ortenzio had been invited to Mr. Pataki's much-hyped endorsement of Gov. George W. Bush of Texas for President. An uproar ensued, for Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher are no ordinary hustings-hustlers. They are two of the most influential Republican fund-raisers in the state (Ms. Mosbacher once raised $15 million in a single night) and they helped lift George Pataki from obscure state legislator to potential vice president-in-waiting. Ms. Mosbacher said that Mr. Ortenzio, who is chairman of the Hudson River Park Conservancy, received more than 100 voice-mail messages from furious allies and friends expressing outrage over his supposed banishment. Mr. Ortenzio declined to comment. Ms. Mosbacher, in an interview with The Observer , said she hadn't realized she was being punished for helping Mr. Giuliani. "There was one meeting I wasn't invited to," she said. "Big deal. I still don't feel punished." With political insiders yapping about a major fissure in state Republican ranks on the eve of campaigns for President and U.S. Senate, Mr. Pataki apparently realized his absence would make matters worse. Sources familiar with the event said the Governor decided at the last minute to show up at the Sheraton on the appointed date, and, in full view of disgruntled and gruntled alike, he gave his supposed enemies a flat-out, back-squeezing hug. Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher squeezed back. "He treated me as he always does," said Ms. Mosbacher of Mr. Pataki. "I didn't sense any problem whatsoever." Some observers recalled a famous betrayal that was preceded by a peck on the cheek, but Mr. Pataki's gesture seemed genuine to at least one witness. "I was two steps away," said a Republican insider. The source said there were no signs of tension between the Governor and the two fund-raisers. Political insiders, never shy about adjusting their analyses when new gossip presents itself, now are whispering that Ms. Mosbacher and Mr. Ortenzio provoked the wrath not of Mr. Pataki, but of forces aligned with former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, an erstwhile Giuliani foe in whose image the current state Republican Party was created. "Alfonse wants as much power in the state as he can get," said one Republican source familiar with the situation. Mr. D'Amato didn't return calls seeking comment, but sources close to the parties involved said they believe the former Senator or his well-placed allies in state government circulated the stories about Mr. Pataki's supposed anger with the fund-raisers. According to the sources, the D'Amato allies were hoping to send a message to other would-be Giuliani supporters seeking to stay on good terms with the state Republican machine. "They were trying to make an example of Ortenzio," said one Republican insider. "It didn't work. It backfired." A Flurry of Calls The Dicker column apparently embarrassed the Governor and prompted him to place several reassuring telephone calls, including one to Mr. Ortenzio. "I know for a fact that [the Governor] is trying to mend some fences," said one close ally of Mr. Pataki. "You can't make enemies over nothing. I know Pataki himself was on the phone trying to make everything right." While the Governor's peacemaking gesture in the Sheraton sent a message about his continued affection for Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher, the turmoil was yet another indication of high-level tensions between the Pataki and Giuliani camps. The rivalry, Ms. Mosbacher conceded, has not exactly helped the cause of party harmony. "It's petty infighting that doesn't help anyone except Hillary Clinton [the presumed Democratic candidate for Senate]," Ms. Mosbacher said. "But people do believe this will blow over." Some government professionals are not so sure. They say the Pataki-Giuliani divide is on their mind whenever they try to do business with either the state or city governments. "Everyone who is dealing with the state understands the perils of doing business with the Giuliani administration," said one top lobbyist. "You know not to be too praiseworthy [of the Mayor] in print." The Mayor's people are convinced that Mr. Pataki's people are working behind the scenes to make life uncomfortable for people like Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher, who work both camps in the interests of promoting New York Republicans. "It's palpable at City Hall," said one Giuliani fund-raiser. "There's a sense that Pataki is trying to hurt them in a variety of ways." Chief among those hurtful ways is the Governor's presumed support for, or at least encouragement of, Representative Rick Lazio of Long Island, who may challenge Mr. Giuliani for the Senate nomination next year. The Giuliani fund-raiser conceded that there was great concern about the damage Mr. Lazio could do to Mr. Giuliani even if the Mayor wound up winning the nomination. The ghost of Ron Lauder, the perfume heir whom Mr. D'Amato recruited to run an expensive kamikaze campaign against Mr. Giuliani in 1989, has yet to be exorcised, and probably never will be. Mr. Lauder's negative campaign against Mr. Giuliani during the '89 Republican primary campaign very likely contributed to David Dinkins' narrow victory over Mr. Giuliani that year. "Lazio could hurt Rudy like Lauder did in 1989," the mayoral fund-raiser said. A Republican consultant familiar with New York politics noted that Mr. Pataki's aides, particularly those associated with Mr. D'Amato, are "obsessed" with Mr. Giuliani and his probable campaign for U.S. Senate next year. Among the strongest anti-Giuliani operatives is the Governor's outspoken communications director, Zenia Mucha, a former operative for Mr. D'Amato. Sources close to the Republican infighting are convinced that Mr. D'Amato is trying to find a way of reasserting the authority he lost when voters turned him out of office last November. They saw his hand, or the hand of somebody close to him, in the strange attacks on Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher. Several argued that it was unlike George Pataki to order a public exile of two loyal–and valuable–friends like Mr. Ortenzio and Ms. Mosbacher. Indeed, theassertion that they were on the Governor's "enemies list" was jarring, if only because the genial Mr. Pataki carefully nurtures his image as a tolerant and inclusive bridge-builder, an antidote to Mr. Giuliani's famously assertive tactics. The notion of even-tempered, well-adjusted George Pataki wielding an enemies list rang false, almost like asserting that Charles Dickens actually was a self-absorbed philanderer who cruelly left his wife and copious number of children for another woman. Or, er, something like that.