Omens good for Hillary's Senate bid

DAVID USBORNE says the first lady will need a good turnout to thwart the Hillary-haters.

BUFFALO - On the last day of a campaign that began in a Catskills hayfield 16 months ago and closes in a hotel ballroom in Manhattan, Hillary Rodham Clinton bounded across the state of New York yesterday pleading with the Democratic faithful to turn out and vote.

Accompanied by local heroes, television celebrities and by her daughter, Chelsea, Clinton skipped from city to city and from borough to borough in a final effort not so much to win over last remaining waiverers but to electrify her supporters.

While recent surveys have given the first lady a convincing edge over her Republican opponent, Rick Lazio, in the race for the United States Senate in New York, aides in her campaign continue to worry that a low turnout today could rob her of victory.

"Listen, this is very important," TV comedian Bill Cosby exhorted hundreds of students at a state college in Buffalo. "I would like every person here to call a friend - a friend who has said to you they are not going to vote - and take that friend with you to vote."

Clinton, who pumped her fists to the live music of rock band 10,000 Maniacs, issued the same warning she had been sounding for several days. Those who sit out today will not have the right to complain about politicians later.

"If you don't vote, you lose the right to determine what will happen in the future and you give that right to somebody else," she said in Buffalo, before flying to Albany and New York City.

It has been a long time since early in the summer of 1999 when the first lady strolled self-consciously down a track on the farm of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose shoes she is hoping to fill, and confirmed to a throng of reporters what had been clear for months - that she was going to run.

When they come in, the results will bring to an end the most extensive Senate race in American history and the most closely watched political contest this year, aside from the Presidential one. They will also tell us whether Clinton will indeed make the history books as the first wife of a sitting US President to achieve elected office.

Today will also close the book on a campaign of many unexpected turns, notably the decision last spring by New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani to pull out of the race leaving the way for the youthful and somewhat lightweight Lazio, a US representative from Long Island.

The omens for Clinton seem good. Polls on Monday gave her leads of between 7 and 12 points. She will easily capture the vote in New York City and polls show her winning 2-1 among Jewish voters.

But there is a large portion of voters who would not vote for Clinton if she paid them $US1000 each. Or even $US10,000. It will take a strong turn out among Democrats to repel the Hillary-haters.

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* The Herald Online's coverage of voting in the US presidential election begins at noon today.