 While previous Republican candidates and fellow Long Island Congressmen Rick Lazio and Pete King had both indicated an interest in replacing Giuliani, upon Giuliani's withdrawal the state party quickly rallied around Lazio, who had more campaign funds and who was viewed as a potentially strong candidate.In particular, Governor Pataki — who never cared much for Giuliani to begin with — was strongly in favor of Lazio, and praised him as "fresh, unencumbered challenger" to Clinton.This also caused a shuffle in New York's unique third-party ballot-line alignments