Money in the Spotlight as Lazio, Clinton Square Off

Hillary Rodham Clinton, facing Republican Rep. Rick Lazio in the second debate of their Senate campaign, took him to task Sunday for what she says is a violation of their agreement to ban outside money from the race.

“Last month, Mr. Lazio said this was an issue of trust and character. He was right,” Clinton said. “And, if New Yorkers can’t trust him to keep his word for 10 days, how can they trust him for six years?”

Lazio, who insists he has not violated the agreement, blasted right back, raising the issue of whether the Clintons have used sleepovers at the White House and the Camp David retreat in Maryland to generate campaign contributions.

“Mrs. Clinton, please, no lectures from Motel 1600,” he said, referring to the White House’s 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. address.

In what turned out to be an hourlong, rapid-fire exchange of ideas, charges and countercharges, Clinton even was asked by one journalist to explain her decision to stay with President Clinton after his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky became public.

“The choices that I’ve made in my life are right for me,” she said. “I can’t talk about anybody else’s choices. I can only say mine have been based on my religious faith, on my strong sense of family and what I believe is right and important.”

Lazio was careful not to criticize his opponent on that call.

“I think this was Mrs. Clinton’s choice and I respect whatever choice that she makes,” he said. “This race is about the issues; about who can be most effective for New York.”

On the issues, Lazio was asked who he admired on the U.S. Supreme Court, with particular attention to the abortion issue. He picked Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican who supports abortion rights.

For her part, Clinton criticized Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush for saying he admired Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two anti-abortion judges on the high court. Clinton has said that, as a senator, she never would vote to confirm judges who are opposed to abortion rights. Lazio has refused to make that a litmus test for judicial confirmation votes.

The two disagreed about everything from public financing of campaigns--he opposes, she supports--to a domed stadium for the West Side of Manhattan--she opposes, he supports.

After the debate, Clinton said she felt “very good about it. I got to talk about the issues. I drew the contrasts. I feel like it was a good exchange.”

Lazio said: “I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to talk about my record, my accomplishments, the things I’ve gotten done.”

The first debate Sept. 13 in Buffalo, N.Y., was marked by Lazio walking over to Clinton’s lectern and demanding she sign a pledge to ban soft-money advertising from the campaign. On Sunday, Clinton turned that into a joke.

“Mr. Lazio--to put your mind at ease in case you’ve been worrying--I won’t be coming to your podium today,” she said as the debate opened.

While Clinton had refused to sign the soft-money ban during the debate, the two later reached an agreement that called for an end to television advertising by political parties on their behalf and for them to do what they could to keep independent groups from running ads trying to influence the race.

While Clinton’s husband skipped the debate, as he did the first one, daughter Chelsea was on hand to provide support. Lazio’s wife, Patricia, also attended.

Even before the debate, the two candidates were seeking to score points with one important electoral bloc in New York--Jewish voters--by criticizing Saturday’s U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Middle East violence and criticizing Israel. The resolution passed with 14 votes; the United States abstained.

Lazio took the Clinton administration to task for not casting a veto of the resolution. At the debate, Clinton broke with her husband’s administration, saying the U.S. should have cast a veto.

The debate came with just 30 days left in their high-profile and expensive Senate race. A poll last week from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut had Clinton leading Lazio, 50% to 43%, among 801 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 1/2 percentage points. That is unchanged from a Quinnipiac poll taken late last month.