First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made history last night – soundly defeating Long Island congressman Rick Lazio in one of the longest and most expensive Senate races ever.
Every major network and local news station called the New York race for Clinton shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m. – bringing a sudden end to an intense 16-month political marathon that often felt like it was plotted in a Hollywood studio.
Exit polls showed Clinton winning by 8 points – carrying the city by an overwhelming margin and running surprisingly well in traditionally Republican upstate.
Clinton’s victory made her the only first lady to be elected to political office. Her big win also shattered New York’s electoral glass ceiling – Clinton is the first woman elected to statewide office in her own right.
As New York voter turnout approached its highest point in eight years, Clinton awaited the election results at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, which was packed with hundreds of reporters and supporters.
It was a political “This is Your Life” for the 53-year-old first lady as she was joined by virtually every elected Democrat she met in the state – and her husband.
It was an odd but joyous moment for the president, whose 22 years in elected office will end January – just as his wife will be taking center stage for the first time in their marriage.
The Clinton victory party kicked off only blocks away from the Roosevelt Hotel, where Lazio saw his Senate dreams go down the drain.
Lazio had coveted the Senate seat after Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement shortly after Election Day in 1998.
But the four-term congressman was pushed to the sidelines by state Republican leaders who believed that the better-known Mayor Giuliani would be a stronger candidate against the first lady.
Lazio, 42, was quickly pressed into duty May 20, after Giuliani announced he couldn’t continue in the race because of his battle with prostate cancer.
The newcomer showed enthusiasm for the campaign trail that Giuliani never had, and surprised pundits by coming close to catching Clinton in the polls within weeks.
His greatest success was on the fund-raising front, raking in more than $30 million from across the country in less than six months.
Including Giuliani’s war chest, more than $78 million was raised in the race, shattering all previous records for senate campaigns.
Lazio capitalized on national anti-Clinton sentiment, but was never able to develop a rationale for his campaign beyond – as one of his fund-raising letters boasted – “I’m running against Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
Clinton, meanwhile, relentlessly stumped across the state, visiting all 62 counties and becoming an expert on the state virtually overnight.
Her biggest miscues came last year, when she kissed the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a trip to the Mideast and flip-flopped on whether jailed Puerto Rican nationalists should be freed.
“She had all the time to work the kinks out of her campaign and Lazio didn’t and he was taken to task for it,” lamented one aide to Gov. Pataki last night.
Lazio’s opportunity to take Clinton head-on backfired miserably in their first debate in October.
Pressing Clinton on whether she would agree to his “soft-money” ban, Lazio walked over to the first lady’s lectern and repeatedly told her to “sign it.”
The confrontation hurt the GOP candidate’s standing with female voters – opening a gender gap that polls showed Lazio failed to close in the campaign’s final weeks.