Clinton, Lazio bid for environmentalist support; spar over fundraising 'mix-up'

From CNN Producer Phil Hirschkorn and Correspondent Frank Buckley

NEW YORK (CNN) -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up another key environmental endorsement Friday in her U.S. Senate race against Republican Congressman Rick Lazio, when the New York League of Conservation Voters announced it is backing Clinton's candidacy. The same group's national arm endorsed both Lazio and Clinton.

New York LCV Chairman Paul Elston told a news conference Friday morning in Manhattan that the first lady "demonstrated a stronger commitment to environmental protection and would provide stronger environmental leadership in the Senate" than would Lazio.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton laughs as she's given a small potted white azalea bush from Paul Elston, hidden, chair of the New York League of Conservation Voters, as Clinton accepts the groups endorsement Friday.

"Mr. Lazio has a good record," Elston said, "but the fact is, he simply has not demonstrated the leadership that we know Mrs. Clinton will provide here."

Previously, the Sierra Club and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed her candidacy. But the national League of Conservation Voters, based in Washington, announced a dual endorsement in the race.

"We're disappointed the state LCV buckled under the pressure of partisan politics," said Lazio press secretary Mollie Fullington, "but we're delighted the national LCV rightly rewarded the congressman's stellar environmental record."

The national LCV is not formally affiliated with any LCV state chapter.

Also Friday, Clinton addressed a fund-raising mistake made by her Senate campaign. She confirmed that among the recipients of a fund-raising letter mailed to 350,000 people were 1,400 names of official White House visitors.

Although about 1,000 of those names were already on a campaign donor list, the first lady acknowledged the mailing was improper.

"It was an error," she said, "and as soon as the campaign found out about it, we immediately moved to take action. We discovered the practical effect was (that) five people made contributions totaling $225, and we're returning those."

Clinton took personal responsibility for what she called the "mix-up." But the Lazio campaign claimed the mistake was typical.

"Just when you think that Hillary Clinton can't go any lower in abusing the public trust, she and her campaign find a new way," said Lazio Campaign Manager Bill Dal Col in a statement.

In a new poll out Friday from the Marist Institute of Public Opinion, conducted after the second Senate debate Sunday, Clinton leads Lazio 47 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in New York. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.

"People care about the issues I have been campaigning on for 15 months," Clinton said. "I believe a campaign on the issues is what really matters to New Yorkers."

But Dal Col was confident the voters would prove otherwise in November. "They will not elect a senate candidate whose campaign has so brazenly broken the law in pursuit of campaign funds," he said.

After campaigning in the city Friday morning, the first lady was to head to Buffalo and then Long Island and Queens. Lazio was campaigning in the Syracuse area before traveling to the New York city suburbs of New Rochelle and White Plains.