Rick Lazio (Getty)

Former Republican congressman and 2000 Senate nominee Rick Lazio has not publicly rolled-out his campaign for New York governor, but he is running and is starting to make his presence in the campaign felt, albeit in a sort of roundabout way.  

On Thursday, Lazio issued a statement on the political stand-off in the state Senate, in which he joined with former New York City Mayor and potential 2010 GOP gubernatorial rival Rudy Giuiliani , who had called for a state constitutional convention to re-structure the legislature in a widely-read New York Times op-ed published Wednesday.