Randy Daniels

The Conservative Party's annual conference is usually funny, so it was just a lack of foresight on our part not to have sent someone.

So we'll have to make do with other people's reports:

Jeanine F. Pirro, who is running for attorney general, said she would not push for restrictions on legal guns and proudly declared that she had a .22, a .38 and a Mauser.

Also, Bill Weld will veto same-sex marriage legislation, and, Randy Daniels? He "pledged he would be just like Ronald Reagan, but 'in living color.'"

- Tom McGeveran

Captiol Confidential has its report on Randy Daniels' morning.

Highlights:

Daniels, whose campaign tried tar Faso (who was until this winter a registered lobbyist) as an Albany insider, was asked at a press conference this morning what had changed his mind about the former Assembly minority leader, and he replied simply:

"That was then, this is now. The point is in a campaign, you try to take facts and you try to lay those facts out in a way that's to your advantage, and I think we did that. But '’ve talked with John about his role in Albany, and I'm satisfied with his explanation.

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National Journal's Hotline-on-Call blog put out its New York "futures market," (bravely) checking in on those it selected as "up-and-comers" in 2003 and selecting a new crop.

It must be said: The 2003 selections are looking pretty grim. They include a number of county-level officials about whom I don't know much, though some, notably Joel Giambra, are no longer seen as having much of a political future. Also a number whose stock, it seems to me, is lower than it was three years ago: Howard Mills, Melinda Katz, John Liu, Gifford Miller. On the "rising star" status of two others, Tom Suozzi and Randy Daniels, the jury will be out for a few more months.

This year's official up-and-comers: Byron Brown, David Paterson, and Ruben Diaz Jr. Also "Chautauqua Co. Exec. Greg Edwards (R): After beating a Dem incumbent in '05, he's someone with 'potential for bigger office.'" Just so you know.

Conservative longshot gubernatorial candidate Pat Manning quit the race today, leaving Weld, Daniels, and Faso to battle it out for the Republican nomination.

From his statement:

It has been an exciting ride for all the members of Team Manning. However, due to the late nature of the campaign season, I think I better serve the Republican and Conservative Parties by suspending my campaign for Governor, run for re-election as the Assemblyman for the 103rd District, and provide whatever service I can to help the Republican Party achieve victory in November, including my continued travels around this great state speaking about conservative Republican reformer values.

My race was not a vanity candidacy, but there is a time when one must step aside for the greater good of the political process.

And a parting shot at John Faso: To all my chairmen­- you have two good men in William Weld and Randy Daniels and I have no doubt you will choose wisely between them.

GOP chaos seems to be extending down to the undercard gubernatorial scrap between John Faso and Randy Daniels. An email went out Friday from an anonymous "Randy Watch" account under the heading "Let's set the record straight" to various Republican leaders, responding to what it describes as allegations that "were infantile in nature and describe the depths the opposition will go to knock John Faso out of the front-runners (sic) perch as we move together as a party towards December 12."

Faso spokeswoman Susan Del Percio says the campaign has nothing to do with the typo-filled email, which plugs Faso's Republican bona fides and adds, "Randy Daniels is running a slash-and-burn campaign led by an ethically-challenged political team who have run lose and fast with law enforcement officials for the past several years."

The email also takes some whacks at Daniels' old ally, David Dinkins.

"As Mayor of New York City, David Dinkins accomplished the following:

"- Appointed a Schools Chancellor, Joseph Fernandez, whom instituted the Rainbow Curriculum. This curriculum used the books Daddy's Roommate, and Heather has two mommies

"- Forced City Hall and the NYPD to sit on their hands during a wave of violence against Jews in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and opposed a crackdown on the squeegee men, who terrorized commuters and visitors to New York City."  read more »

Here we go.

UPDATE: The plot thickens. Nobody on either side of this one seems to think the piece actually came from Faso, and even one Daniels supporter suggests that the piece is actually an attempt to undermine Faso on Weld's behalf. Go figure.

The extended courtship between Hillary and the New York Post is a wonder to behold. She has always given their reporters extraordinary access, and the tenor of their coverage has softened accordingly.

Now in an editorial yesterday and a column today, the paper is laying the groundwork for a Hillary endorsement next year and perhaps again two years later.

Remember, Rupert Murdoch has always backed Tony Blair.

At the moment the battleground is charter schools, and a possible Clinton opponent, Ed Cox, appears to be on the verge of voting in favor of letting the UFT run one of them.

Cox and Randy Daniels "need to do the right thing tomorrow and oppose the union — if they wish to be taken as men of principle," the Post writes, urging a no vote.

The vote is today, but Cox and Daniels seemed to rebuff the Post in their letter to the editor today.  read more »

So: You heard it here first: Murdoch to endorse Hillary.

Just when it seemed the succession saga swirling around Governor George Pataki couldn't get any more  read more »