Statewide Maneuverings

In 2004, talk of Sen. Schumer running for governor concerned democrats of a bloody battle between the Senator and Attorney General, which could have turned New Yorkers off on both candidates. Sen. Schumer decided to announce he intends on remaining as New York's senior Senator, which allowed Mr. Spitzer to take the headlines as the Democratic candidate to beat (though Nassau County Exec. Thos. Suozzi is strongly considering a now-or-never run for personal gain and to make it interesting).

The media was waiting to hear from Gov. George Pataki and if he intended to run a fourth term. The general concensus was if Mr. Pataki ran, he would lose miserably. It was also said that there were no candidates waiting in the wings to succeed Pataki and that the 2006 elections will be the major blow for the New York Republican Party.

The NY GOP proved the media wrong when rumblings from republicans throughout the State began to make ink. The US Senate race already had four unofficial candidates. Congressman and State legislators began dropping hints of statewide office interest. As soon as Gov. Pataki announced he did not wish to seek a fourth term, we started to see placement in two of the four statewide seats.

Interest from Cox, Spencer, Brecht, Brennan, Daniels, Pirro, Sweeney, Meiers, Manning, Weld, Golisano, Lazio, Faso and Balboni all seems to make me believe the New York Republican Party does have names to throw into the statewide mix.

But as we begin to see the men and women fall into their place, I'm becoming a bit concerned about the candidates that may seem to be carpetbaggers or illegitimate for the Party. If the best Republicans can do is select candidates that haven't paid their dues for New York, then it won't matter how much money is raised or spent on campaigning. You can't paint over rust. Rust will continue to grow if not treated. We're seeing that already with our mayoral selection who, if he wins, won't provide us with a future candidate in 2009.

The NY GOP needs to build within and not from the outside. If an outside candidate is facing off with a member who has paid his dues, then a Primary is necessary. We need to see if the registered voters feel comfortable with a candidate who is either from another State or was registered with another party up until October 15, 2005. It's a big concern for me. We have a two party system which needs to see two sets of ideas. If the Republican candidate for Senate or Governor sounds too close to the Democrat, then I'm going to have to assume republicanism has disappeared from the North where it was born.