By
The Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. - In the first debate of their Senate campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton repeatedly attacked Republican Rep. Rick Lazio yesterday as too conservative for New York.
Lazio responded by trying to link the first lady to the policies and even the peccadilloes of her husband.
The often testy exchanges included one where he walked to her side and tried unsuccessfully to get her to sign a pledge to bar soft money from their campaigns.
The televised debate, moderated by NBC's Tim Russert, drew a studio audience of 250 people and was aired on NBC stations across the state. In a sign of the wide interest the race has generated, it was being aired later on the cable new network MSNBC.
Clinton was asked if she felt she should apologize to the American people for misleading them during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when she blamed her husband's troubles on "a vast right-wing conspiracy."
"Obviously I didn't mislead anyone. I didn't know the truth and there's a great deal of pain associated with that," she said. "That was a very painful time for me, for my family, for our country."
Lazio responded by saying "blaming others ... has become a pattern for my opponent." He also reacted sharply to Clinton's attempts to link him to Newt Gingrich, the conservative former House speaker.
"You, of all people, shouldn't try to make guilt by association," he said. "Newt Gingrich isn't running in this race, I'm running in this race. Let's talk about my record."
Both the first lady and the congressman had sought to lower expectations before the debate - she saying she had never done it before and Lazio saying that while he had been in political debates, "this is a different league."
Independent analysts said the stakes were highest for Lazio, the still little-known congressman from Long Island, in what was the first of three planned televised debates.
"He's got to prove he can fight in the heavyweight division," said Maurice Carroll, head of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, before the debate. "She doesn't have to do much of anything except not screw up."
Both candidates had prepped for weeks. The first lady engaged in mock debates with Washington lawyer Robert Barnett standing in as Lazio. Barnett served a similar role for Bill Clinton when he prepared for presidential debates.
White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Tuesday the president "dropped in and out" of his wife's practice sessions. "Certainly he's an experienced debater, and she said she's never done this before," Siewert said.
The president did not show up for the debate. Lazio was accompanied by his wife.
