Republicans Rick Lazio (top left), Carl Paladino (top center) and Steve Levy (top right) and Libertarians Kristin Davis (bottom left) and Warren Redlich (bottom right) are all running for governor.
(Editor’s note: Democrat Andrew Cuomo, the state’s attorney general, declared his candidacy for governor on May 22, 2010. Rick Lazio won the New York state Republican Party designation on June 2, 2010.)
A party-switching county executive. A former U.S. Representative. A developer. A lawyer. The attorney general. And a former madam.
Those are shaping up to be the choices for voters in this fall’s election for governor of New York.
Possible Republican candidates include Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive who switched from the Democratic party to run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination; Rick Lazio, a former Congressman representing New York’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Suffolk County; andWarren Redlich, a lawyer and town board member in Guilderland, about 137 miles east of Syracuse in Albany County.
Libertarian candidates include Redlich and Kristen Davis, the former “Manhattan Madam” whose Emperor’s Club VIP prostitution business was at the center of the scandal that forced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer from office in 2008.
As of mid-April, no Democrats had declared for governor. Gov. David Paterson ended his campaign for the office in February after allegations that he had improperly intervened in a domestic violence investigation of one of his top aides. Paterson had been lieutenant governor and became governor when Spitzer resigned.
The potential leading Democratic candidate is Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is widely anticipated by political insiders to enter the governor’s race. But as of mid-April, Cuomo continued to deflect questions about a gubernatorial run.
The lack of an incumbent makes the governor’s election an open race. The primary elections for voters to choose their parties’ nominee is Sept. 14, 2010. The general election is Nov. 2, 2010.
Here’s a look at the potential candidates:
Andrew Cuomo (Democrat)
Andrew Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, has declined to publicly declare his candidacy, saying only that he’s focused on his current job of attorney general.
His office did not respond to interview requests for this story.
If he decides to run, he would bring to the campaign a high-profile political pedigree. In the Clinton administration, Cuomo served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 2006, he was elected attorney general of New York. Public opinion polls give him ratings in that office.
He’s launched a re-election campaign for his post as attorney general. Cuomo’s also raised $16 million in campaign funds, according to reports filed with the State Board of Elections in January.
In March, Cuomo handed over his office’s investigations of Gov. Paterson to a retired state Chief Judge Judith Kaye. Paterson was implicated in a domestic abuse case and also under fire for allegedly accepting free tickets to the World Series and possibly misleading ethics queries into both matters.
Some political observers saw Cuomo’s distancing himself from the investigation as a signal of his intent to run. To oversee the investigation of potential chief rival would be political dynamite.
As attorney general, Cuomo has launched numerous crusades with investigations into alleged fraud and corruption. He’s publicly denounced Wall Street for some of its practices. After the financial calamity of 2008, for example, Cuomo sued to make Wall Street executives’ bonuses publicly available at companies receiving federal aid.
Rick Lazio (Republican)
Rick Lazio was once considered by party insiders to be the front-runner for the 2010 Republican nomination for governor. But now he faces three challengers for the GOP nomination at its convention in June.
From 1993-2001, Lazio represented New York’s 2nd Congressional District, which stretches from Binghamton to Poughkeepsie along New York’s southern border. In 2000, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate againstHillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat.
After that loss, he retired from politics. Since then, Lazio has worked on Wall Street. From 2004 to 2008, he was an executive vice president for J.P. Morgan Chase, overseeing its lobbying efforts. He left the firm in September 2009 to campaign for governor.
For his campaign, he has raised around $640,000, according to his latest report filed with the state Board of Elections in January.
Steve Levy (Republican)
Steve Levy has been Suffolk County Executive since 2003. On March 19, 2010, he switched parties from Democrat to Republican when announcing his candidacy for governor. The switch won’t technically take effect until after the November election.
A campaign consultant for Levy portrays the party-switch as the result of courtship by the Republicans. “The decision to change parties was due to outreach of the Republican Party,” explained Michael Dawidziak, a Levy campaign consultant. The outreach was an unexpected turn of events for Levy, who expected to run in a Democratic primary, according to Dawidziak.
Levy’s history as a Democrat includes election as a county legislator and a state assemblyman. In 1985, he was elected to his first office as a Suffolk County legislator. From 2001 to 2003, he was a one-term state assemblyman from the 5th Assembly District.
When announcing his party switch for the governor’s race, Levy was joined by Ed Cox, chairman of the state Republican party, who lent his endorsement. Levy also has the support of John DeSpirito, the Onondaga County GOP chairman. Both had previously endorsed Lazio.
As the basis for his campaign to lead the state, Levy trumpets his record as a fiscal conservative. As evidence of his cross-over appeal for voters of different parties, he also cited Suffolk County’s high bond rating, which makes it easy for the county to borrow money and his own high re-election margins.
As of mid-April, the Levy campaign reported no fundraising, according to State Board of Elections. The next required report is July 15.
Carl Paladino (Republican, Conservative)
Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, 63, joined the governor’s race in April. And within days his candidacy was under fire after over a Buffalo blog report that Paladino had forwarded pornographic and racially insensitive e-mails to friends.
Images in the e-mails included depictions of Miss France engaging in intercourse and a photo of African tribal dancers titled “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal.” The messages were released by WNYmedia.net and generated national coverage.
When the e-mails surfaced, Paladino acknowledged to the Buffalo News that he had forwarded them to friends, apologized for them but dismissed their release by the blog as a “smear” tactic. Since then his campaign has stepped up its criticism of the messages’ release, cast doubt on the authenticity of some and defended Paladino against accusations of racism and sexism.
“We don’t know which ones are real and which ones are fake,” said Michael Caputo, the campaign’s chief strategist. “We checked Carl’s computer and none of those e-mails were in his sent file.” But, Caputo said, Paladino remembers one of the e-mails and told his staff that he had been forwarding e-mails for years to a group of male friends.
“He feels that it was inappropriate. He apologizes for offending anyone,” said Caputo. He added: “We’ve not lost any support, but we certainly have not gained any either. In this stage of the campaign, we need to be building support, not losing is. So we’re working very hard to put this behind us.”
Even without that controversy, Paladino’s campaign faced obstacles. In March, Paladino’s other targeted endorsement, the Conservative Party, lent its support to Lazio. Paladino does have support from the conservative Tea Party movement. And he has deep pockets from which to draw his campaign finance. He estimates his net worth at $150 million.
Over the years, Paladino’s used that fortune to support a variety of candidates, including Democrats Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer. Until 2005, Paladino was a registered Democrat.
At a recent campaign event in Syracuse’s Eastwood neighborhood, Paladino energized the crowd with what quickly became one of his signature lines: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to put up with it anymore.” That line, a quote from the move “Network,” is one of Paladino’s many refrains as he builds a populist campaign driven by voter discontent over spending.
Paladino, known for being outspoken and stubborn, railed against what he calls a “ruling class” in Albany. If elected, Paladino has promised to serve only one term.
Warren Redlich (Republican, Libertarian)
In 2008, Redlich was a lawyer for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, a U.S. Representative from Texas popular with Libertarians. In addition to seeking the Republican nomination, Redlich is also seeking the Libertarian Party endorsement at the April 24th convention.
Redlich traces his political involvement to watching documentaries about the war on drugs and women’s suffrage in the mid-1990s. In particular, he was struck by the perseverance of women like Susan B. Anthony , he said. Anthony, said Redlich, fought her whole life for the right to vote but never got to see her goal achieved.
“If you believe in something, you’ve got to get up off the couch and get involved,” Redlich said.
In 2004 and 2006, Redlich ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Representative in New York’s 21st Congressional District, which includes the area surrounding Albany. The district includes all or part of Albany, Fulton and Montgomery counties.
Now, Redlich practices law and sits on Guilderland’s town board in Albany County.
His qualifications, he said, are evident in his career as a lawyer and elected local official in Guilderland, a town of 3,500 people. As a town board member, he makes hiring, firing and budget decisions, Redlich says. In a reference to the prostitution business that made his Liberatarian opponent, Kristen Davis, a prominent figure in New York politics, Redlich said, “I’ve got real campaign experience and run a small business and one that isn’t illegal.” Davis ran a prostitution ring, for which she spent four months in jail.
His goals for the state: “Cut spending, cut spending and cut spending.” Redlich supports a pay cap for public sector employees and capping retirement pensions at $75,000 a year.
“We can’t raise taxes,” Redlich argued. “Other candidates never actually identify cuts like I do.”
Kristin Davis (Libertarian)
Kristin Davis became seeks to claim the same job that her former client Eliot Spitzer left in disgrace. In 2008, Spitzer resigned after allegations that he frequented a high-class call girl service formerly run by Davis.
In her campaign for governor, Davis invokes Spitzer’s political ghost on her own behalf. “I spent four months in Rikers Island for my association with former Governor Eliot Spitzer,” Davis said in an e-mail interview. “I saw first-hand the inequities in our criminal justice system and decided to use my voice to advocate for reform by legalization of marijuana, prostitution and gay marriage.”
Davis’ Web site says her credentials include building a multi-million dollar business from scratch. This is her first run for public office. But Davis argues her background in finance qualifies her to run the state and to solve the current fiscal crisis.
(Paul Brockwell Jr. is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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