Spin Cycle

Allies of Rudy Giuliani believe that if he performs poorly in tomorrow's Florida primary he'd drop out of the presidential race rather than face a humiliating defeat in his home state. But speculaltion aside, the instant attention is on how the New York Republican ballot will look.

Eight years ago, when state Republican officials were working to defeat Sen. John McCain (above) in a presidential primary, the rules were different. For one thing, delegate selections involved petition filings, and a court battle was fought by McCain just to win ballot access.

That was also the last time the GOP held a presidential primary here, because George W. Bush got an incumbent’s free ride in 2004.

After the bitter internal wars of 2000, however, state Republicans changed their selection system. Today, with “Super Duper Tuesday” approaching, a new dispute has sprung from the new method, as we reported over the weekend. The legal question is whether GOP election officials — newly empowered to place presidential candidates on the ballot on their own — may also remove them. Democratic officials insist they cannot.

If Alan Keyes, Duncan Hunter and Fred Dalton Thompson are removed from the ballots — as GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello seems to wish — favorite-son candidate Rudy Giuliani will become second on the ballot behind Rep. Ron Paul, and McCain will appear last of the remaining five.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: The expert Jerry Skurnik notes that this applies only outside NYC, where names are rotated routinely by election district.

Never mind whether ballot display matters in the results of the primary a week from tomorrow. Due to Democrats’ deadlines, their party members will see dropouts Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich on the primary ballot.

Dan Janison