ill Paxon is a former congressman from upstate New York.

Lopez: Do you have any advice for the GOP as they go into this weekend?

Bill Paxon: Don't panic. Mrs. Clinton has ridden to our rescue. She's topped out. She's hit a concrete ceiling with about 45 percent support. We should pick the right candidate and know that very quickly the voters will get to know that person, and will choose that person over the alternative. Mrs. Clinton has spent months now campaigning across the state. She's hit that 45 percent concrete ceiling. She can't get beyond it. And I don't believe she ever will.

Lopez: Who is that right candidate?

Paxon: That's up to the governor and the state party chair, and our party, to choose. Certainly it appears to me that they're leaning toward Rick Lazio. I think we have a number of great candidates. Rick would be a great one. I believe that our candidate will be successful.

Lopez: Is Rick Lazio a plus in that he's not the name Giuliani and some of the other candidates are? Is it an advantage to the GOP that it's no longer Rudy vs. Hillary?

Paxon: Sure. There is no question that the entire spotlight now falls on Mrs. Clinton. And I believe that she will wilt in the heat of scrutiny. She is not a New Yorker. Her failure to vote in school-board elections this last week underscores that. Somebody who talks about education and doesn't vote in the local school-board election underscores her view that education policy should be made in Washington, and to hell with the local school board. It's not something New York politicians do, forget to vote in school-board elections. She has taken this cavalierly. I think there is a touch of arrogance in everything she does in this campaign. Rick Lazio or our Republican candidate, whoever he or she may be, all the candidates that are out there, are much more grounded and vetted and sensitive to the needs of New Yorkers.

Lopez: I heard pundits speculating last night that she's the veteran candidate now. Does her carpetbagger status dissolve at all, now that there will be a new guy in the race?

Paxon: No. Not at all. As a matter of fact, as you pointed out earlier, the spotlight is on her — and things like having an Arkansas doctor in her TV ads, not voting in these local elections, these are all issues that are important to New Yorkers.

Recently I've heard her pick up Senator Moynihan's line, that New York doesn't receive its fair share from the federal government. Well, who's been running the federal government these last eight years? She and the co-president. If New York hasn't been getting its fair share for eight years, what has she done about it? Not a darn thing.

These are all critical issues and questions. And now she has nowhere to go. She can't keep complaining about police shootings in New York and the mayor's handling of them. She is going to have to answer for her record.

You know, there's another thing that's been going on that very few people in New York or Washington have been observing but I'm sure you have, and that’s the virtual implosion of what's left of the Democratic party in New York. There's a fight going on in the state assembly over the speakership-which, right now, is much more important to Democrat pols than the Senate race. They would throw her overboard in a second for one more seat in the assembly. That is what is more important to Democrat pols right now. She becomes more and more of a sidelight in this effort. Also, the fight between Andrew Cuomo and Carl McCall is much more important than the New York Senate race.

Lopez: Any chance you are the right candidate? Would you consider running for Senate?

Paxon: I wouldn't get two votes in my own household.

Lopez: I take that that's a no?

Paxon: You got it.