ALBANY - Edward Cox, a son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, is reconsidering his decision two months ago to withdraw from the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the state's GOP chairman said Friday.

“I spoke with him yesterday and he said he was reviewing whether or not to run,” said Stephen Minarik.

Minarik said he had reached out at the behest of several county GOP chairmen in the wake of Jeanine Pirro's Wednesday announcement that she was giving up her struggling campaign for the Senate to run instead for state attorney general.

Cox had withdrawn from the race in October after Republican Gov. George Pataki endorsed Pirro.

Cox spokesman Thomas Basile declined to comment.

The Pirro withdrawal left two active candidates for the GOP nomination, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, who is little known statewide, and an even much less well known tax attorney from Sullivan County, William Brenner.

Spencer said Friday he thought talk of Cox re-entering the race was “kind of goofy.”

The former mayor said the party leaders should unite behind his candidacy.

Minarik said he hoped to have county GOP chairmen meet sometime in mid- to late January, after Cox has made his decision.