U.S. Senate hopeful Lazio back on the road in New York

By Phil Hirschkorn and Frank Buckley/CNN

July 3, 2000
Web posted at: 6:49 p.m. EDT (2249 GMT)

SUFFERN, N.Y. (CNN) -- Republican Rick Lazio is riding the campaign trail again, this time through upstate New York.

The congressman, facing off against first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the nation's most-watched U.S. Senate race, boarded his campaign bus Monday for a five-day swing.

U.S. Senate candidate Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.) is joined by his daughters Kelsey, 6, left, and Molly, 8, in the window of Lazio's campaign bus in Brentwood on New York's Long Island on Monday

On his first trip aboard the "Mainstream Express" after the GOP state convention a month ago, Lazio said he wanted to introduce himself to New York voters. This trip, he said, his goal is to introduce them to his record.

"Every week that goes by, people have a better sense of my record, of what I am talking about, the things I would take to the Senate," Lazio told CNN.

"I want people to know, here's a guy who's been out there working for us for the last eight years. He's someone who is a native New Yorker, whose life is completely intertwined with New York, whose only ambition is serving New York," Lazio said.

Lazio traveled with his wife Patricia and their two young daughters, Kelsey and Molly.

The tour started in his home county of Suffolk, on Long Island, where Lazio toured a family health center that offers free breast cancer screenings.

"I have a very, very strong record on health care, and I would pit my record on cancer issues against anybody in the House," Lazio told reporters.

Lazio, who called himself the House's "point man on cancer issues," was a co-sponsor of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, which passed the House in May and is pending in the Senate.

The act would pay for treatment for women diagnosed with cancer who are uninsured or unable to pay for treatment themselves.

Lazio also has introduced a bill to extend the sale of stamps that have raised $12 million for cancer research. And, he supports legislation to double cancer research funds for the National Institutes of Health.

"You can say anything you want during the campaign trail; you got to look at what people have done," Lazio said.

"If you look at Mrs. Clinton's record, the one foray into policy on health care she had was an unmitigated disaster," Lazio said, referring to the Clintons' ill-fated attempt to overhaul the nation's health insurance system in 1993.