Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a three-term incumbent who is among the most influential members of Congress, was re-elected by a wide margin yesterday over his Republican challenger, Bernadette Castro, according to unofficial returns early this morning.
Mr. Moynihan, a Democrat, defeated Ms. Castro, a longtime Republican fund-raiser who was running for public office for the first time, by a ratio of about 3 to 2. Henry F. Hewes, the Right to Life candidate, was a distant third.
With 93 percent of the election precincts reporting, the vote was:
Moynihan . . . 2,361,077 (55%)
Castro . . . . 1,788,842 (42%)
Hewes . . . . 86,828 (2%)
"It is a very large moment for New York," Mr. Moynihan said as he claimed victory at 9:30 last night at a celebration with several hundred campaign supporters in Grand Central Terminal. "We have made clear that whatever direction some parts of the country are going, New York is going forward."
Ms. Castro, who had trailed by as many as 30 percentage points in many opinion polls, conceded two hours later. "We understood that I would be a long shot," she said. "Well here's the upshot: I may not be going to the Senate, but I am going to keep up the fight to keep New York voters informed.
"As long as Bernadette Castro's around, there will be no backroom deals," she continued, referring to what she described last week as an attempt by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to convince her to withdraw her support for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, George E. Pataki. "There will be no backstabbing, no way."
In winning a fourth six-year term, Mr. Moynihan confounded the conventional wisdom that incumbents were especially vulnerable this year. Despite his bookishness and a penchant for bluntness, he has consistently registered as New York State's most popular politician. Yesterday, he ran way ahead of all other Democrats who were running statewide.
Mr. Moynihan, New York's senior Senator, is difficult to categorize politically. He is perceived by liberals as uncomfortably moderate on some social issues, while conservatives often view him as much too liberal. He has repeatedly done well among upstate voters, including Republicans, as well as in traditional Democratic strongholds like New York City.
Mr. Moynihan, 67, has been in the Senate since 1977 and is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He served as a cabinet or subcabinet member for four Presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Gerald R. Ford. He was also Ambassador to India and a professor at Harvard, and he has written or edited more than a dozen books.
Ms. Castro, 50, had trouble raising money, in part because she was seen as a long-shot candidate. She struggled, too, to distinguish her politics significantly from Mr. Moynihan's. Except for Ms. Castro's support for the death penalty, the candidates did not differ significantly on major issues.
Ms. Castro described herself as a "Christine Todd Whitman Republican" -- referring to the New Jersey Governor to describe herself as fiscally conservative and socially moderate. She tried to portray Mr. Moynihan as far more liberal and free-spending than she would be.
Ms. Castro was best known previously for having appeared in television commercials for her family's convertible sofa company, beginning at the age of 4. A resident of Long Island, she was president of the family business until it was sold last year.
Republican Party officials had hoped that Ms. Castro, with her connections and family fortune, would be able to mount a well-financed campaign against Mr. Moynihan, who had assembled a large campaign treasury.
Immediately after Ms. Castro received the Republican nomination in May, she said she expected that the Senate race would cost $3 million to $4 million. Asked how much of her own money she would spend, Ms. Castro said, "As much as it takes."
But she ultimately raised only $500,000 and donated an estimated $1.2 million of her own money -- perhaps half of what Mr. Moynihan spent. Some Republican Party officials indicated disappointment that she had not dipped more into her own finances.
Ms. Castro blamed some of her fund-raising difficulties on Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato. She accused him of scaring away potential financial backers by urging them to donate money to the top of the Republican ticket, George E. Pataki, instead of to her. Mr. D'Amato denied that he had done so.
Ms. Castro also complained that Mr. D'Amato, out of deference to Mr. Moynihan, had not gone out of his way to help her on the campaign trail. Mr. D'Amato acknowledged that he had told Ms. Castro he could not campaign against Mr. Moynihan, with whom he has worked for years in Washington.
While Mr. D'Amato's help might have been useful to Ms. Castro, the wide margin yesterday suggested it was unlikely to have been decisive.
