After heated Senate debate, Hillary Clinton faces fund-raising questions

Lazio comes out swinging; Clinton gives as good as she gets

BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- Both campaigns declared victory Thursday after a contentious and personal debate Wednesday night between New York Senate candidates first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio.

The closely watched campaign resumed Thursday with Mrs. Clinton defending herself against accusations that she used overnight stays at the White House to reward campaign contributors.

The Clinton administration was criticized after the 1996 campaign for inviting big donors to spend the night. Some of the first lady's largest contributors have also given to other Clinton campaigns and causes, and Mrs. Clinton on Thursday rejected any accusation of impropriety.

"We have friends and supporters come and spend time with us and spend the night with us that we are getting to know and who like spending time with us," she said. "I don't see what's news about that."

The White House is considering media requests for names of overnight guests, according to deputy White House spokesman Jake Siewert. In response to similar allegations made in 1997, the White House released the names of 938 guests who had spent the night at the White House. That list did include names of political supporters as well as entertainment luminaries and old Clinton friends.

The senior spokesman, Joe Lockhart, confirmed that political supporters have stayed at the White House, but dismissed the notion that the first lady did anything improper.

"The president and the first lady, over the last seven and a half years, have always welcomed their friends and supporters and political officials from around the country, (and) prominent members of the arts community, to stay at the White House," Lockhart said. "Within that group, there certainly have been people who, as their friends, have supported them financially."

Debate just first of several

The renewed interest in overnight guests followed a report Wednesday by Internet columnist Matt Drudge, and comes just after Mrs. Clinton and Lazio, a four-term congressman from Long Island, engaged in an hour-long debate marked by several heated exchanges.

Lazio at one point crossed the stage to insist that the first lady sign a pledge to swear off unregulated "soft money" in the campaign.

Lazio and Clinton

"We New Yorkers don't back down from a fight," Lazio told supporters after the debate.

The first lady said she was relieved after the event, held in a Buffalo public television studio. She told supporters she was comfortable with her performance, but surprised by the tenor of Lazio's comments.

"There were a couple of moments tonight I had to stand there and wonder to myself," Clinton said.

The debate, hosted by NBC's Tim Russert, was the first of three planned between Clinton and Lazio. The candidates are running for the seat now held by the state's senior senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a retiring Democrat.

A New York Daily News/WCBS poll taken after the debate gave Clinton the edge: Of the 274 registered voters who watched the debate, 49 percent said Clinton did a better job in the encounter, while 36 percent scored it for Lazio. A second debate will take place October 8 in New York.

Lazio rejects 'guilt by association'

During the debate, Clinton repeatedly tried to link Lazio to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- Lazio served as a deputy House whip during Gingrich's tenure -- while Lazio painted her as an opportunistic outsider and tried to link her to the scandals of her husband's presidential administration.

"Listening to the congressman's response reminds me of a word I've heard a lot of this past year -- chutzpah," Clinton said.

"He stands here and tells us he's a moderate, mainstream, independent member of Congress. Well in fact, he was a deputy whip to Newt Gingrich. He voted to shut the government down, he voted to cut $270 billion from Medicare, he voted for the biggest education cuts in our history."

Lazio shot back, "You, of all people, shouldn't try to make guilt by association. Newt Gingrich isn't running in this race, I'm running in this race. Let's talk about my record."

Lazio later pressed Mrs. Clinton to sign an agreement he had prepared, saying that neither candidate would accept any more soft money -- the unlimited contributions made to political parties -- for their campaigns. At one point, Lazio crossed the stage to stand closer to the first lady, waving the document at her.

"That was a wonderful performance," Clinton said.

"I'm not asking you to admire it, I'm asking you to sign it," he said. Clinton refused: She has said she wants Lazio to repudiate any support from outside organizations before she agrees.

Lazio spokesman Dan McLagan defended his candidate's confrontational style Thursday, saying, "This isn't high tea."

Clinton faces questions about personal, political past

Mrs. Clinton also had to parry questions about her political -- and personal -- role alongside President Clinton. Lazio said education and health care reform proposals she supported in Arkansas and before Congress were disasters.

"Now, I don't think we need that Little Rock record in the Big Apple," he said.

And debate moderator Russert asked her whether she regretted misleading the public when she angrily rejected early reports of her husband's affair with a former White House intern, which she blamed on "a vast right-wing conspiracy."

"Obviously, I didn't mislead anyone," she said. "I didn't know the truth, and there's a great deal of pain associated with that."

"That was a very painful time for me, for my family, for our country," she continued. "It's something that I regret deeply that anyone had to go through."

Lazio responded by hammering away at her reputation for honesty, saying: "Blaming others ... has become a pattern for my opponent."

Correspondent Frank Buckley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.