This is my reply to the recent article "King Beats Previdi in Third District Primary" by Susie Trenkle.

There are a total of 167,000 Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District. This year King got 6,726 votes versus 7,593 in 1996. King actually went down by 867 votes, or 11.5 percent.

When you consider the fact that he receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from PACs all over the country, is King really that popular in the 3rd District?

I received 1,867 votes this year, versus 1,014 in 1996. This result represents an increase of 853 votes, or an improvement of 84.1 percent. Not bad for someone who had less than $15,000 to spend.

In addition, News 12, the television station I had debated King on, was announcing repeatedly on election day, Sept. 15, that there were no Republican primaries. This coverage also included a Political Science professor from CW Post, who was talking about why there is low voter turnout in primaries, saying that, "The Republicans do not have any primaries." How could a news organization be so uninformed and wrong on such an important issue?

The big question is: What would have happened if News 12 and Newsday had done a more effective job of promoting the fact that there were Republican primaries for Congress in Nassau County, not only in the 3rd District, but in the 4th District as well.

The fact is my total vote increased by 84.1 percent, while Mr. King's went down. For this reason, I look forward to the election in the year 2000.