West Virginia daily

(New York City) New York, the traditional liberal bastion which hasn't had one of its own elected president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt won a fourth term in 1944, has potential contenders leading the field in both major parties for the 2008 White House nominations.

A national poll last month from Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion, mirroring other independent surveys, had Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York leading Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats' 2004 nominee, 41 percent to 17 percent.

On the GOP side, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led Sen. John McCain of Arizona, 31 percent to 24 percent, although with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the mix, all three were tied with 20 percent support. Rice, however, has said she will not run.

Neither Clinton nor Giuliani has yet said if they plan to run for president. Besides those two, New York's Republican governor, George Pataki, is eyeing a White House run of his own in 2008, having decided not to seek a fourth term next year. But Pataki is barely a blip in national polls.

It is no surprise that Clinton and Giuliani have been able to move to the fore given their high recognition factor and New York's position as the media capital of the world, said Virginia-based GOP strategist Nelson Warfield.

"They transcend the swamp of New York politics," Warfield said. "Because of their celebrity, Clinton and Giuliani are able to rise above the mire that soils so many other New York politicians."

They are, of course, simply "Hillary" and "Rudy" in the headlines _ one, the only first lady ever elected to public office and the other, "America's Mayor" in the wake of his post-Sept. 11 terrorist attack leadership.

Clinton and Giuliani are not the first New Yorkers since Roosevelt to be touted for the White House. Despite the famous newspaper headline, then New York Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey did not beat President Truman in 1948. Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp was on the unsuccessful 1996 GOP ticket as Bob Dole's running mate. And, while former Gov. Mario Cuomo led national polls on the Democratic side before both the 1988 and 1992 presidential races, he never ran.

"If you were Merlin and you had taken a young boy with a fragile build and dipped him into the cauldron of boiling juices from lizards' insides and produced a knight with the biggest, broadest sword ever seen, you wouldn't have a better miracle than Giuliani produced by 9-11," Cuomo said.

"I wish I could say he was the product of a developed politics here that is so strong, but he wasn't," the former governor said. "And, neither was Hillary. Hillary was an import from Washington who chose, to our benefit, to come to New York. Both these people _ yeah, they are New Yorkers now and very much so, but not a product of New York politics."

"You don't find much presidential timber in New York because the soil is polluted with machine politics. Unlimited incumbency and almost unlimited patronage breed grubby politicians," said Warfield, a top aide on the Dole presidential campaign. "But Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani cut in line to win here without paying dues to the spoils system."

"The difference is Giuliani will drop like a rock when GOP conservatives discover under all his hype there's a flaming liberal," Warfield added, a reference to the former mayor's strong support for abortion and gay rights.

New York has been losing political clout as the nation's population growth shifted to the South and West. New York had 45 of the House's 435 seats in 1942, the most of any state and 12 more then runner-up Pennsylvania. New York now has 29 seats, behind California's 53 and Texas' 32. That translates directly into electoral muscle when it comes to selecting presidents. New York has 31 Electoral College votes (29 House members and two senators) while California has 55.

Despite that, Cuomo said that with Clinton headed for what he thinks will be a big re-election victory next year - an election he said should be thought of as "the first battle for the presidency in `08" - the focus of the nation could again be on his home state.

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