National Republican officials have decided to withhold financial support from all but two closely contested Congressional races in New York, as the party braces for the possibility that it could lose several more House seats in the state.

The decision to abandon much of the state came after internal party polls showed Republican candidates in at least three once-promising races falling behind their Democratic opponents, a party official briefed on the internal deliberations said.

As a result, Republican leaders are diverting money to candidates in other races in which party officials believe they have a greater chance of success, the official said.

The decision by national Republicans to focus on a smaller group of races underscores the degree to which the party is on the defensive not only in New York but also in New Jersey, Connecticut and many other states. The national party is short on cash and is being forced into the difficult position of deciding where to continue to fight — and where to effectively surrender — as the election enters the final days of campaigning.

“Tough decisions have to be made,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, who conceded that the party was seeking to minimize its losses. “You have to decide who comes off life support and who gets a massive infusion.”

Two of the races effectively being written off in New York are in districts currently held by Republican incumbents who are retiring at the end of the year — the 25th Congressional District in the Syracuse region, now held by James T. Walsh; and the 13th District on Staten Island, where Vito J. Fossella is stepping down. Representative Fossella was found guilty in a Virginia court this month on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.

A third New York race the party has chosen not to finance is in the 20th District, a heavily Republican area that runs from the mid-Hudson Valley to Lake Placid. It is represented by Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat who is completing her first term.

Republican leaders had high hopes of toppling Ms. Gillibrand earlier in the year and recruited Alexander Treadwell, an independently wealthy former state Republican Party chairman, to run as the party’s candidate.

Peter Constantakes, a spokesman for Mr. Treadwell, said on Thursday that the national party’s decision not to finance the race was not surprising given its limited resources. But he noted that Mr. Treadwell had spent nearly $6 million of his own money on his campaign in a race that his supporters clearly believe is still competitive.

“We knew at the outset that they would be focusing on protecting incumbents and helping challengers for open seats,” Mr. Constantakes said, referring to national party leaders.

In 2006, Democrats picked up five seats in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and now hold a 34-to-13 advantage in the three states’ delegations.

Republicans are not entirely on the defensive in the Northeast. The party is mounting what even Democrats agree are strong challenges in two Democratic-held districts, those of Representatives Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire and Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania.

Democrats have been making a strong push to pick up Republican-held districts in six races that are being fiercely contested in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Over the last two weeks, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent roughly $5.3 million buying television and radio advertisements in those six races, more than double the roughly $2 million the National Republican Congressional Committee has spent on the same races in that period.

The national parties are battling particularly hard, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, in New Jersey, where the retirement of two Republican congressmen, Mike Ferguson and H. James Saxton, has created prime opportunities for Democrats to pick up additional seats.

In the case of Mr. Saxton’s seat, in New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, outside Philadelphia, the Democratic candidate, State Senator John H. Adler, has vastly outspent the Republican, Chris Myers, who is the mayor of Medford and a Lockheed Martin executive. But even Democrats concede that the race is a tossup, underscoring the conservative composition of the district.

In the case of Mr. Ferguson’s seat, in the heavily Republican Seventh Congressional District in northern New Jersey, the Democrat, Assemblywoman Linda Stender, has also poured much more money into the race than her Republican rival, State Senator Leonard Lance. But that race remains tight as well, strategists in both parties say.

Democrats are also focusing on Representative Christopher Shays, a 10-term Republican who barely won re-election two years ago in Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District in the affluent New York City suburbs.

Mr. Shays has proved to be a deft politician in past elections, blurring any differences between himself and Democrats in a district with strong Democratic leanings.

This year, he faces what both parties say is a strong challenge from Jim Himes, a former Goldman Sachs executive who has tried tying Mr. Shays to President Bush’s policies on the economy, a potentially potent issue in a district with many Wall Street executives and employees.

In one particularly telling advertisement currently on television, the image of Mr. Bush appears alongside an image of Mr. Shays, with both men quoted as saying that the economy is fundamentally “strong.” The narrator then intones: “Chris Shays supports George Bush’s failed economic policies.”

The only two New York districts where the national Republican Party is financing candidates are the 29th, in the state’s Southern Tier, and the 26th, in the Buffalo area.

In the 29th District, Representative John R. Kuhl Jr., a Republican, is being challenged by Eric Massa, a former Navy officer whom Mr. Kuhl defeated two years ago. In the Buffalo race, Chris Lee, a Republican, is battling Alice Kryzan, a Democrat, for the Congressional seat currently held by Thomas M. Reynolds, who is retiring.

The national party is also helping the Republican incumbent in the Third Congressional District of Pennsylvania, Phil English, who is facing what analysts describe as a strong challenge from Kathleen Dahlkemper, a Democrat who is receiving considerable financial support from Democratic leaders in Washington.

Source: NY Times