Politics scene

NEW YORK

GOP chooses Lazio as governor candidate

NEW YORK | New York Republicans on Wednesday picked former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio as their candidate for governor and rejected a challenge from Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Levy.

“It is time we are unified,” Mr. Lazio said as he accepted the party’s nomination during the GOP’s fractious convention in Manhattan. “We are going to Albany, and when we get there, we are going to tear down the wall of incompetence and corruption. … They have had their chance, and they have failed.”

Then he took aim at Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo, the popular and well-financed attorney general and son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo.

“Andrew Cuomo has been too political for too long,” Mr. Lazio said. “Isn’t it time we reject the status Cuomo?”

Mr. Lazio represented his Long Island district in Congress from 1993 to 2001 and lost to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate election in 2000.

Mr. Levy is the Suffolk County executive and still enrolled as a Democrat. He needed more than 50 percent of the votes in a second ballot to win a spot in a Sept. 14 primary but mustered just less than 43 percent.

Mr. Levy didn’t immediately endorse Mr. Lazio after their bruising fight and said he was considering a run on a minor-party line.

ILLINOIS

Senate hopeful faces more heat over record

CHICAGO | Senate candidate Rep. Mark Steven Kirk faced new questions Wednesday about inaccurate descriptions of his military service, this time over wrongly saying that he served “in” Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It is the second time in less than a week that Mr. Kirk, the Republican nominee for President Obama’s former Senate seat, has had to explain inaccurate descriptions of his military record.

Mr. Kirk’s campaign said his official U.S. House website once incorrectly said he was the only member of Congress to have served in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that began in 2003. That was changed in 2005 to say that he served “during” the operation.

Mr. Kirk, a member of the Navy Reserve, served as a stateside intelligence officer during the invasion.

“Over the course of a public career, unintentional errors do happen,” Mr. Kirk’s campaign said in a statement, adding that his 2005 campaign website always used the correct wording.

The description of Mr. Kirk serving “in” the operation went beyond his website. Newspaper stories of the period routinely said Mr. Kirk served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and there’s no sign he sought corrections.

WHITE HOUSE

Obama extends same-sex benefits

President Obama ordered government agencies Wednesday to extend additional benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, including child care services and expanded family leave.

The moves come a year after Mr. Obama signed a memorandum giving federal workers’ same-sex partners a first round of benefits including visitation and dependent care rights. At the same time, he asked federal agencies to determine what other benefits could be given to domestic partners without Congress acting, and those he announced Wednesday were the results of that review.

They include child care services and subsidies; more flexibility to use family leave to attend to the needs of domestic partners and their children; relocation benefits; giving domestic partners the same status as “family members” when federal appointments are made; and access to credit union and other memberships when those are provided to federal workers.

As with Mr. Obama’s memo a year ago, this one covers only benefits that can be extended under existing law, without congressional action. Legislative action would be required for a full range of health care and other benefits. Health care benefits are the ultimate goal for many activists, and Mr. Obama supports them as well. In a statement he called on Congress to act on legislation to extend health benefits to same-sex partners.

LABOR

Unemployment drops in most metro areas

Unemployment rates fell in April for more than 90 percent of the nation’s 372 largest metro areas as hiring picked up across the country.

The Labor Department says the jobless rate dropped in 346 areas last month. It rose in just 12 and remained flat in 14.

That’s much better than March, when unemployment fell in 257 areas and rose in 89.

Much of the improvement was seen in Midwestern regions with significant manufacturing operations. Manufacturers, who added 44,000 jobs nationwide in April, are benefiting from increasing overseas sales and efforts by retailers and other U.S. companies to restock their warehouses.

Joblessness is still widespread, with 14 metro areas recording unemployment rates of 15 percent or higher in April. But that’s down from 28 areas in March.

Unemployment fell below 15 percent in five metro areas in Michigan, the government’s report says. U.S. automakers, after decimating their work forces in 2009, are adding workers as sales grow.

ALASKA

Palin endorses GOP challenger in Senate

ANCHORAGE | Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed a challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the state’s Republican primary in August.

Mrs. Palin on Wednesday issued her support for Fairbanks lawyer Joe Miller on her Facebook page.

Mrs. Palin writes, “Joe is a true Commonsense Constitutional Conservative, and we’re thankful he and his family are willing to offer us a choice in Alaskan leadership.”

The Miller and Murkowski campaigns did not have immediate comment Wednesday.

HHS

Assistant secretary resigns; husband ill

The Obama administration official who leads the nation’s family and welfare programs is resigning next month to care for her ill husband.

Carmen R. Nazario, assistant secretary for children and family in the Department of Health and Human Services, sent a message to her staff Tuesday saying she would step down July 16.

“Nothing has brought me more pride than serving this country….In recent months, however, it has become clear that I must devote more time to my husband, Alexis, as he battles Alzheimer’s disease,” she wrote.

Mrs. Nazario, who received her Senate confirmation to her HHS post in September, oversees the nation’s anti-poverty, child care, child support, child welfare, Head Start, healthy marriage, disabilities and Native American social service programs.

From wire dispatches and staff reports