‘TIS the season . . . to name the biggest winners and losers of New York state politics for 2000, and what a long list of strong entries there has been.
The finalists, a tough field to winnow down, represent a widespread consensus of more than a dozen of the state’s most prominent political experts, including elected officials, lobbyists, consultants, and journalists.
BIGGEST WINNERS
* First Lady and soon-to-be-U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, despite being a carpetbagger married to an impeached president, rolled over her hapless GOP challenger, U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio.
The sky’s the limit for Hillary now.
* Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), who, despite landslide wins by Mrs. Clinton and Democratic presidential contender Al Gore – and notwithstanding an anti-Republican revolt in the once-solid GOP-bastion of Nassau County – was able to hang on to every contested Senate seat.
* Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who survived an unprecedented attempted coup from now-ousted Majority Leader Michael Bragman of Syracuse, and then went on to expand the Democrats’ already huge Assembly majority.
* State Democratic Chairwoman Judith Hope, who has presided over a string of statewide Democratic successes and was the first person to encourage Clinton to enter the Senate race.
* Zenia Mucha, Gov. Pataki’s controversial chief political operative, who parlayed a long career as an often mendacious and media-hostile media adviser into a job as a senior vice president of communications with ABC television, including ABC News, at an estimated $400,000 a year.
* Venerable Republican Sen. Roy Goodman of Manhattan, who made it back from the political dead – more than a month after the Nov. 7 election – despite the nearly insurmountable Democratic majority in his district.
BIGGEST LOSERS
* Hapless U.S. Senate candidate and soon-to-be-former U.S. Rep. Lazio of Suffolk County, who still can’t get any respect as reports that he would land a post in the new Bush administration have so far turned out to be false.
State motor-vehicles commissioner may be the best Lazio will be able to do.
* Gov. Pataki, who, despite two trips to Florida to help Bush’s presidential effort, couldn’t wipe out the enormous personal setback he suffered because of Lazio’s defeat at the polls.
Pataki, an early backer of Lazio’s candidacy, is now the last Republican elected official of stature on the statewide scene, and he’ll be the last one left in New York after Mayor Giuliani’s forced retirement next year.
Pataki was also badly damaged by his heavy-handed efforts to keep Arizona Sen. John McCain out of the GOP primary last March, looked ridiculous when he ridiculed writer E.B. White, and has had increasingly strained relations with the GOP’s grass roots.
* U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who is destined to be overshadowed by Mrs. Clinton and whose repeated praise of Pataki has caused widespread unhappiness in Democratic circles.
* State Comptroller Carl McCall, who damaged his reputation with many New York Democrats by – according to several Democratic sources – first promising to back Bragman’s coup against Silver and then backing Silver instead.
McCall is also taking considerable heat in Democratic circles for appearing in public-service-type television ads with Pataki, despite his oft-stated interest in running against Pataki in 2002.
* State GOP Chairman William Powers, who had another bad year after a long string of electoral successes.
* Former Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman, who led the failed effort to oust Speaker Silver.
* Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue. Who?
* Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor of Brooklyn, who, despite landslide New York wins by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton and an anti-Republican revolt in Nassau County, couldn’t win a single new seat in the still solidly GOP-controlled upper house of the Legislature.
Fredric U. Dicker’s radio show, “Live from the State Capitol,” can be heard from 10:05-11 a.m. weekdays and 1:05-4 p.m. Saturdays, on the Web, at http://www.wrow.com.