REPUBLICANS, IN A SHOW OF UNITY, VOTE AS ONE TO NOMINATE CANDIDATES

In a show of unity and allegiance to Gov. George E. Pataki, state
Republican Party delegates voted unanimously yesterday to designate John J.
Faso as their candidate for state comptroller and Dora Irizarry, the first
Hispanic woman to be nominated to statewide office, as attorney general.
Each was the only candidate nominated.

It was a placid contrast to the fractious Democratic State Convention last
week, where one of the headliners, Andrew M. Cuomo, refused to appear and
other candidates hustled for last-minute votes.

Mr. Faso, who resigned as the minority leader of the State Assembly to
campaign, is running in an open race, the first for state comptroller in 24
years. Ms. Irizarry, a former state judge who was appointed by Mr. Pataki,
faces a formidable candidate in Eliot L. Spitzer, the Democratic incumbent
who last week won a $100 million settlement from Merrill Lynch.

With a strong incumbent, Mr. Pataki, topping the ticket, several delegates
said they were savoring party unity and did not mind if their convention
did not make headlines.

"I don't think a convention without a pitched battle is such a terrible
thing," said Joseph Kasper, the leader of the 31st Assembly District in
Queens. "If it's a love-fest, God bless it, because it looks a lot better
than the Democratic convention."

The only tiny rumble of dissent on the floor yesterday came when one
delegate proclaimed his county the state's most beautiful. The convention
was so orderly, in fact, that even though numerous speakers said they had
received instructions to dally, the day's proceedings ended an hour ahead
of schedule.

Even the decor reflected the tone of unanimity. At the Democratic
gathering, held in the same mid-Manhattan hotel ballroom last week,
balloons trailing campaign placards used the chandelier-decked ceiling as a
playing field in their own version of the World Cup tournament. The
Republican's balloons were bundled in a net, presumably awaiting a victory
lap by Governor Pataki today.

Dissent, when it appeared, met with a quick response. When Louis P. Wein,
an insurgent candidate running for governor, attempted to distribute
literature in the press room, his fliers were quickly confiscated. In the
middle of an interview with a reporter, Mr. Wein, who has run for office on
both the Constitution Party and the Right to Life Party lines, was thrown
out of the room by Todd Alhart, a state Republican Party spokesman.

Later, Mr. Wein was allowed to return. Mr. Alhart said the candidate had
not had the proper credentials and there had been a misunderstanding with
security officers.

Yesterday's main speaker was Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who emphasized the
need to enroll voters, particularly recent immigrants, as Republicans and
to make the party open and inclusive.

Amid many references to "our great governor," Mr. Bloomberg said: "I'm so
thrilled that you've let me come and speak. I thought you were going to ask
me to hold his coat." It was a reference to Mr. Cuomo's complaint that
Governor Pataki had played only a supporting role to Rudolph W. Giuliani
after Sept. 11, doing nothing but holding the mayor's coat.

Mr. Bloomberg said all New Yorkers owed the governor thanks for his help
after Sept. 11. Later, the mayor, a former Democrat, said that he had voted
for Mr. Pataki in 1998, but could not remember if he had in 1994.

Ms. Irizarry, the nominee for attorney general and one of the few minority
faces at the convention, said that if elected she would shift the office's
focus to Internet crime; insurance, identity and credit card fraud; and to
fighting drugs, although she supports reform of the Rockefeller drug laws.

Ms. Irizarry, who was introduced by former Police Commissioner Bernard
Kerik, is a former Bronx narcotics prosecutor who was appointed to a
judgeship by Mr. Pataki in 1997.

In the comptroller's race, Mr. Faso, from Columbia County, told delegates
that he had a record of fiscal responsibility, fighting tax increases and
government spending in his 16 years in the Assembly. "The job of
comptroller is not about pursuing headlines," he said. "It's about watching
the bottom line."

Asked by reporters how he could be expected to monitor a governor in his
own party, he said he had disagreed with the governor before - on the
health care package passed in January and on the expansion of casino
gambling - and would again.

He also suggested that he would not consider political and ethical
questions like whether to invest state pension fund assets in tobacco
companies. "The bottom line is: What is the return? That's the way I look
at it," he said.

Mr. Faso stopped short of saying that he would limit campaign contributions
from those who do business with the state, as his Democratic opponents have
said they would do. "I'm going to abide by the rules as they exist," he said.