Thompson hits Giuliani on NYC references

BRISTOL, N.H. - Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said yesterday that New York City isn't a model for the rest of the country and that Rudy Giuliani should stop basing his policy stands on what he did as that city's mayor.

Thompson, campaigning at a Lakes Region gun store with stuffed moose and deer overhead, told reporters that Giuliani too often turns to his time as New York mayor to explain his support for stronger gun restrictions.

"He relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of the rest of the country, I don't think. I think the sentiments of those people in the rest of the country are in support of the Second Amendment - which is where I've always been and I don't think he's ever been," Thompson said.

The former US senator from Tennessee and "Law & Order" actor badly trails Giuliani in New Hampshire polls, in part because Thompson has spent so little time in the state. He is trying to show differences between himself and Giuliani, who trails former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain of Arizona in the latest CNN/WMUR poll. Giuliani polls at 16 percent, far short of Romney's 33 percent support. Thompson, who fares relatively well in national polls, posted only 4 percent support.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican Ron Paul said he has raised more than $9 million in the past two months and he predicted his presidential campaign will exceed its $12 million fourth-quarter goal.

"It looks like we can't stay under it," Paul said in an interview that aired yesterday on Bloomberg Television. Paul said organizers expect a fund-raising blitz on Dec. 16 - timed to be on the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party to highlight Paul's antitax philosophy - to bring in more than the $4.2 million a similar event raised on Nov. 5.

Paul said he has begun spending generously in key states with early nomination contests, including New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nevada and said he expects to have money to campaign through Feb. 5, when at least 22 states will vote.

Paul called his Republican presidential rivals, including national front-runner Rudy Giuliani, "neoconservatives" whom he couldn't support in the general election should his own bid fail. "They think we're supposed to spread our goodness through force," Paul said.

BLOOMBERG