[1] On August 25, Kennedy announced that he would seek the Democratic Senatorial nomination, after establishing a residence in Glen Cove, New York.

[9] Kennedy's death left a vacancy in the United States Senate that would be filled through an appointment by Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

[10] On August 11, a spokesman for Rockefeller stated that the main choices for the appointment were Gardner, Goodell, and Reid.

[11] On September 10, Rockefeller appointed Goodell, a member of the House of Representatives from the 38th congressional district, to fill the vacancy.

On January 20, 1969, the Southern District Court dismissed their cases, allowing for Goodell to serve the remainder of Kennedy's term until a regular election was held in 1970.

[15] The Conservative State Committee convened inside Hotel McAlpin in Manhattan, New York City, on April 7, to select the party's nominees in the general election.

[21] Representative Richard Ottinger announced on January 19, 1970, that he would be entering the Democratic senatorial primary as the "unity candidate".

[22] On January 12, Representative Richard D. McCarthy stated that he was interested in running for the Democratic nomination for the senate election.

[37][38] On February 23, Morris B. Abram, the president of Brandeis University who had challenged Georgia's voting system in a lawsuit that resulted in the one man, one vote principle being established by the Supreme Court of the United States, announced his resignation from his position so that he could seek the Democratic nomination for senator.

However, Burns told Abram to conduct a statewide campaign in an attempt to gain support from state committee members.

[42] The 345 member of the Democratic state committee convened in Liberty, New York, from March 31 to April 2, to select the party's nominees.

[49] On April 4, 1970, the state committee selected Timothy W. Costello to serve as the party's placeholder senatorial candidate.

[51] Charles Goodell was favored by officials in the Liberal Party due to criticism levied against him by members of the Republican and Conservative state committees and his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Goodell faced no opposition during ballot although 49 of the 360 committee members, from Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens counties, chose to abstain rather than to vote for him.

[57] The entire 28-member Nassau County delegation abstained due to Goodell's lack of support for Nixon, but chose to not nominate another candidate as that could lead to primary challenges in the state legislator and accusations of not being “real Republicans”.

Joseph Margiotta, the Nassau County Chairman, also stated that abstaining would not anger Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who supported Goodell.

[59][60] On July 15, 1970, Richard Ottinger's campaign announced that it would circulate petitions in an attempt to gain another ballot line named the Conservation Party.

[61][62] In August, Ottinger filed petitions with a total of 33,561 signatures, more than the 12,000 required, to gain the additional ballot line.

[71] Enough valid signatures were collected to gain the additional ballot line, but Secretary of State John P. Lomenzo ruled that the Independent Alliance's emblem, an outline of New York with Buckley's name inside, was illegal as New York's election law limited the number of times that a candidate's name could appear on a ballot line to one.

[73] Rockefeller, who was running for reelection in the gubernatorial election, and Buckley appeared in the same voting column in New York City due to the ballot design in which Rockefeller's Civil Service Independents ballot line was combined with Buckley's Independent Alliance.

[78] On September 14, a debate was held between Buckley, Goodell, and Ottinger at the New York State Publishers Association dinner, with a four-person panel asking questions.

[81] On October 30, Stanley Shaw, the Liberal Party leader in Queens County, Paul Siminoff, and Basil Kyriakakis, the Liberal Party leader in Syracuse and Rochester, and New York City Council Minority Leader Eldon R. Clingan called for an emergency meeting of the Liberal Party's state executive committee, to decide whether or not to revoke its nomination from Goodell, and instead give it to Oettinger, to prevent a Buckley victory through vote splitting.

On September 30, Agnew criticized Goodell for having "left the [Republican] party" and joined the "awful liberal-radical coalition" to obstruct Nixon's policies.

[104] On October 8, Agnew referred to Goodell as the "Christine Jorgensen of the Republican Party", comparing Goodell to the American soldier who had undergone sex reassignment surgery in the 1950s; Jorgensen later demanded an apology from Agnew, as she did not want her name to be used in "dirty politics".