Rick Lazio yesterday faced new questions about his fund-raising after it was revealed his Senate campaign is running an anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton TV commercial across the country to boost his war chest.
In a highly unusual move, the Republican candidate has been airing the ad occasionally on national cable services to promote his credit-card-friendly campaign Web site and a toll-free number for donors, his aides said.
The Lazio campaign did not inform the media of its out-of-state ad blitz. Reporters became aware of it only when they received calls from colleagues in other states who were baffled as to why the New York hopeful would buy commercials in their states.
“This isn’t about voters, it’s about fund-raising,” Lazio media guru Mike Murphy told The Post.
“This is our McDonald’s secret sauce. We think we’re the first campaign to do this.”
Political veterans said they could not recall a candidate for statewide office in New York spending crucial campaign dollars to show ads in other states – because usually, every dollar is reserved for New York air time, which is among the most expensive in the country.
The 30-second spot shows a picture of Clinton and says she is “raising millions of dollars in soft money from Hollywood liberals and big special interests to buy a U.S. Senate seat in New York.”
“Let New York choose its own senator,” the announcer says.
The commercial has been shown intermittently on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and the Weather Channel since August, Murphy said, adding that it has proven to be a cost-effective fund-raising tool.
The campaign has bought $140,000 in air time – a small amount by TV standards – and collected $1.6 million in contributions from the Web site, some of which was prompted by the commercial.
Asked by reporters if his campaign was airing ads outside of New York, Lazio first said he didn’t know. But later, saying he approved of the commercial, he added, “We should be looking for ways for the ordinary citizen to participate, not stuffing $500,000 checks in our pockets from West Coast concerns.”
Lazio aides said the commercials were paid for only by the Lazio campaign, and not with any soft money from outside groups or political parties. They were not immediately able to provide copies of the ad, showing who paid for them.
Lazio last week halted national GOP funding of two in-state commercials after the Clinton campaign charged he had violated an agreement not to use soft money.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson demanded Lazio publicly disclose to New Yorkers any commercials he is showing in other states.
“It’s time for him to come clean about his secret fund-raising strategy,” Wolfson said.
Meanwhile, Clinton addressed former Mayor Ed Koch’s complaint that she should have done more to convince the president to veto an anti-Israel resolution in the United Nations.
“I have spoken with Mayor Koch. He knows how strongly I feel that the resolution should have been vetoed,” Clinton said.
She also dismissed complaints from Lazio about Democratic trackers who have been following him on the campaign trail.
“That’s something that happens in campaigns,” Clinton said after visiting a daycare center in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn.
“I know that it happens in nearly every campaign that I’m aware of.”