Former GOP Presidential Hopefuls Mitt Romney

Washington – The Republican National Committee, sensing an opportunity to recapture House seats in Upstate New York, this week will pull out two of its biggest names and its wallet to boost Syracuse-area candidates.

Former GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani plan to visit Central New York to endorse and campaign for Republican challengers in the 24th and 25th congressional districts.

Romney will visit Syracuse today, where he plans to endorse Ann Marie Buerkle in her bid to upset U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, in the 25th District.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, plans to cut the ribbon at 4 p.m. on a new Republican National Committee headquarters on Henry Clay Boulevard in Clay. The local headquarters inside a former Nissan car dealership will be equipped with 30 phones that will be used to run phone banks, Buerkle said.

The RNC headquarters is among 10 the national party plans to open across New York state, Buerkle said, investing cash in a traditionally Democratic state that has only two Republicans in its 29-member House delegation. An RNC spokesman in Washington, D.C., said he could not confirm details about the New York strategy.

Romney is also giving a speech at 6:30 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn in Salina at a dinner organized by the Upstate Multi-County Committee of the New York State Conservative Party.

Buerkle will start the week with two days of high-profile exposure that couid help bring sorely-needed contributions to a campaign where Maffei has a 10-to-1 cash advantage. The former Syracuse Common Council member said she has been invited to appear on national TV Tuesday night on the Great American Panel segment of Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.

Giuliani will visit Wednesday to campaign for Richard Hanna, the Oneida County businessman challenging U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, in the 24th Congressional District.

The former New York City mayor said he likes Hanna’s commitment to limited government, lower taxes and “responsible” federal spending.

Giuliani will campaign with Hanna on Wednesday afternoon at the Hotel Utica in Utica, and later at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown.

Arcuri is completing his second term in office. He won the swing-district seat in 2006 after 24-year incumbent Republican Sherwood Boehlert decided to retire. Maffei, a freshman, captured the seat left open when Republican James Walsh retired in 2008 after 20 years in the House.

Republicans need a net gain of 39 seats this fall to regain the majority in the House of Representatives.

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