RSS Feed MenuNew York state has provided many Republican and Conservative victories. The Republican Party produced governors and presidential candidates like Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. It produced conservative Senator James Buckley and the indefatigable Alphonse D’Amato. It produced hybrids like Rudy Giuliani. All of these politicians had their blemishes. But they knew how to win and to appeal to the entire state and often beyond. Now the GOP is cratering.
This year there are going to be three critical statewide races and the New York GOP appears ready to kick them all away. There will be elections for governor and both Senate seats this year. All provide opportunities for a party ready to take them.
Most tantalizing is the governor’s race. It is to replace the unpopular Democratic incumbent, Patterson who replaced the disgraced Elliot Spitzer. The Democratic Party picked its strongest candidate, Andrew Cuomo, son of a previous long time governor and currently New York attorney general. The GOP just united around former Senate candidate and congressman Rick Lazio, but suffered a side show due to a late effort to recruit Democrat Steve Levy, also from Long Island, to run for governor.
Lazio prevailed. Rick Lazio has strong ties to the Conservative Party (and no Republican has won the governorship without the Conservative Party’s backing in forty years). He lost to Hillary Clinton in a Senate race (full disclosure: I volunteered for him in that race). He is an attractive candidate who has a chance to give Cuomo a hard run in a bad Democratic year. Why recruit Levy and split the party? Lazio faces an uphill climb but at least there will be a race.
In the Senate, no big name has risen to take on the pliant creature of Senator Chuck Schumer: Kirsten Gillibrand. She has been appointed, not elected, and this is the year to mount a strong challenge to her. Schumer has his own race to run but has scared off opponents of his protégé. Senator Gillibrand polls poorly and has no discernible accomplishments other than voting in lockstep with Schumer. Why wasn’t Steve Levy recruited for this race?
Senator Schumer’s race would be tough in any event, as he is an experienced pol who sucks in money from banks and Wall Street by offering protection from the worst excesses of Obamaism. He also has a deft feel for middle class concerns and cannot be pushed off camera if one is available. This should not have mattered.
Rudy Giuliani, by far the strongest Republican in New York, sat out the governor’s race. George Pataki, sat out all races as well. The party has recruited no famous name to run against any candidate despite having a slew of wealthy businessmen in its ranks. In a state as big, with as expensive a media as New York, fame and money matter.
The game plan in this race would be to run a Chris Christie-style candidate for governor, who would vow to cut spending and hold Albany accountable. Then, a political powerhouse should have been put up against Senator Gillibrand. Whether Giuliani or Pataki or even Congressman King of Long Island, she should have been faced with someone poised to dethrone her.
Finally, a wealthy, well-spoken businessman should have been found for a vanity run against Schumer. While this would not have ousted him it would have tied him down and distracted him from protecting Gillibrand. He is extremely thin-skinned. Attacking him on his failure to defend New York from Obama’s plans to try terrorists in lower Manhattan, on Obama’s miserable Israel policies, and on Schumer’s party killing the goose that laid the golden egg on Wall Street (as well as the tax issue) would have made him spend resources that will now shore up Democrats statewide.
The strategy of every Republican would then benefit from synergies with every other. There is a nomination for the Second Circuit which includes New York, tailor-made for painting the Democrats as weak and beholden to bizarre theories of criminality. Albany is entirely Democratic-controlled and is loathed by the electorate. New York is experiencing record deficits and population drain, all under unified Democratic control. The New York Senate hangs in the balance in a year when redistricting will take place. Retaking the Senate could prevent the worst kind of gerrymandering. An enormous opportunity wasted. We could have been the ‘27 Yankees. We are shaping up to be the ‘62 Mets.
To quote a famous New Yorker -“What a Revolt’n Development dis is.”*
*William Bendix, “The Life of Riley” but also popularized by other famous New Yorkers: Jimmy Durante, Groucho Marx, Bugs Bunny and Benjamin J. Grimm.
msmilack // Jul 6, 2010 at 4:23 pm
It has been clear for a long time that they are on a downward spiral. It is nonetheless surprising when no one seems to learn from experience and they repeat the same mistakes.
rbottoms // Jul 6, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Yeah well… Michael Moore is fat, so there.
easton // Jul 6, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Little Ricky Lazio? That was 10 years ago he was beaten by Hillary. Lets face it, she flat out outmanned him. What has he been doing since then?
florishes // Jul 6, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Scoff…what we truly need is a return to power of the Party Without a Plan.
CentristNYer // Jul 7, 2010 at 10:13 am
Lazio had a chance in 2000, but the local media savaged him for daring to cross the stage during a debate with Hillary and ask her to sign a pledge. That’s all anyone remembers from that debate and it haunted him for the rest of the campaign. Unfortunately for him, he tried to interfere with the media’s preferred narrative about Hillary being the first former first lady to have a successful career in politics. Given that her ties to the state were nonexistent, he should have trounced her.
Perhaps he learned a lesson from that experience and will be a better campaigner against Cuomo, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
RSLC REDMAP Rundown – July 9, 2010 – State News Shot // Jul 9, 2010 at 2:30 pm
[...] The FrumForum’s John Vecchione blogs, “Albany is entirely Democratic-controlled and is loathed by the electorate. New York is experiencing record deficits and population drain, all under unified Democratic control. The New York Senate hangs in the balance in a year when redistricting will take place. Retaking the Senate could prevent the worst kind of gerrymandering.” [...]
The RSLC Redistricting Majority Project – REDMAP // Jul 9, 2010 at 2:42 pm
[...] The FrumForum’s John Vecchione blogs, “Albany is entirely Democratic-controlled and is loathed by the electorate. New York is experiencing record deficits and population drain, all under unified Democratic control. The New York Senate hangs in the balance in a year when redistricting will take place. Retaking the Senate could prevent the worst kind of gerrymandering.” [...]
A Better Tomorrow // Jul 12, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Rick Lazio is a much better campaigner than he was 10 years ago. He is moving well around the state with a good operation. He held off the foolish Ed Cox move (to support his son’s candidacy for Congress) with the democrat. Rick has the support of Mike Long. Rick is engaging, bright and has earned the chance to be a Governor who will, like 3 term Governor George Pataki, reform the budget process.
Rick is running at a time when the word ‘incumbent’ is poison and Cuomo has been nothing but an incumbent for his entire career. We may well see another ‘ABC’ Election, “Anyone But Cuomo.”
Andrew Cuomo is running the same campaign he ran for AG (the HRC method) no questions from the press. He appears with little notice so the press won’t have time to organize, takes an endorsement, speaks his stump words and leaves, no questions answered. It is three months into his campaign and we don’t know what he will do with the economy, the Ground Zero mosque, gay marriage, the stumbling democratic controlled senate and assembly. Nothing, but we know what to expect, he is a democrat who worked in the Clinton administration from which emerged with the same principles of tax and spend.
His announcement of candidacy for governor had a DVD, a thick book and no questions from the press.
The reason is that when he ran for governor the first time he stepped on his tongue many many times.
So, now he doesn’t speak to the press except for a few trusted one-on-one sessions on the phone.
He is the ultimate Albany insider. Former bag man for his father. For Bill Clinton he started the housing crisis by carrying out Clinton policy of ‘every body deserves a house.’ Forcing Freddie and Fannie to lower standards.
Rick Lazio will be the governor and a great governor.