Left to right: Eric Schneiderman, Dan Donovan
For the state’s top law enforcement officer, voters will choose between a Democratic state senator from Manhattan and a Republican district attorney from Staten Island in the November election.
For the Democrats, the attorney general candidate is state Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan. In the Sept. 14 primary, he beat four other candidates for his party’s nomination. Schneiderman had 34 percent of the votes to 32 percent for Kathleen Rice, the district attorney of Nassau County; 16.7 percent of the votes for Sean Coffey, a trial lawyer from the Bronx; 9.8 percent for Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester County and 7.9 percent of the votes for Eric Dinallo a former state insurance superintendent from New York City.
The tallies of votes were 202,894 for Schneiderman; 189,505 for Rice; 98,388 for Coffey; 59,168 for Brodsky and 46,496 for Dinallo.
For the Republicans, the candidate is Dan Donovan, the district attorney for Richmond County, which includes Staten Island. He had no primary opponent.
Donovan and Schneiderman are vying to succeed Andrew Cuomo, who is leaving the attorney general’s office to run for governor. The general election is Nov. 2.
Neither Donovan nor Schneiderman responded to interview requests.
On his Facebook status update, Schneiderman thanked his supporters for his primary win. “We did it. I cannot thank you enough for your energy, support and commitment to justice,” Schneiderman said. Shortly after winning, he also challenged Donovan to a debate about prosecuting alleged crimes by Wall Street financial executives. Donovan did not immediately respond.
Schneiderman has cast himself as determined prosecutor of Wall Street wrongdoing. “Wall Street corruption, abusive lending, debt collection scams, mortgage fraud and insurance industry abuses are ripping off New Yorkers and devastating communities in every corner of our state,” he says on his campaign Web site.
In his debate invitation letter to Donovan, also posted on his Web site, Schneiderman accuses Donovan of a too-gentle view of Wall Street behavior and promises: “I intend to make protecting homeowners and consumers from bad actors on Wall Street a key concern.”
Donovan may want to avoid that kind of anti-Wall Street debate, say political experts. That kind of debate poses political risks because Wall Street is a source of much campaign funding and of much voter outrage.
“He’s kind of caught, or might be caught, between wanting to sound like he won’t put up with Wall Street malfeasance, but at the same time doesn’t want to threaten the support that he might have from Wall Street,” said Kristi Andersen, a political scientist at Syracuse University.
Jeff Stonecash, also an SU political scientist, agreed. “Donovan probably knows that it’d just be terrible agreement to enter into a debate with that as the premise,” said Stonecash.
New York’s voter enrollment is also against Donovan, said Stonecash. “The state is two-to-one Democrat. That’s probably going to determine it,” he predicted. Schneiderman could lose, he suggested if he was “caught in some scandal.”
New York’s voter enrollment is over 5.7 million for Democrats; a little over 2.9 million for Republicans; 146,221 for the Conservative Party; 413,855 for The Independence Party; 40,878 for the Working Families Party; 22, 939 for the Green Party and over 2.3 million are unaffiliated with any party.
Here are shapshots of the two candidates:
Eric Schneiderman (Democrat)
Schneiderman is a state senator representing the 31st state Senate District, which includes parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. He has been in the state Senate since 1998.
In the Senate, he is chair of the Senate Codes Committee , which considers criminal and civil justice legislation in New York State. In addition to his committee assignments, he also serves as the Senate deputy majority leader for policy.
Schneiderman, 55, grew-up in Manhattan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and Asian Studies at Amherst College, and later graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. Schneiderman now lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with his 17-year-old daughter, Catherine.
In his attorney general campaign, he has made Wall Street his main issue. But his status as an incumbent could work against him in today’s political environment, suggested SU political scientist Andersen. “Schneiderman is vulnerable because he’s been in the state Senate, and that’s one of the things that Donovan will try to say, and he’s already said this, ‘He can’t fight corruption because he’s already been part of the corrupt state legislature,’” she said.
Dan Donovan (Republican)
In 2003, Donovan was elected as the Richmond County district attorney, becoming the first Republican elected to that office in heavily Democratic New York City in more than 50 years. He was re-elected in 2007.
Donovan, 53, is from Staten Island. He attended St. John’s University at its Staten Island campus, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He attended the Fordham University School of Law as an evening student where he was a member of the Fordham Law Review and earned his law degree, in 1988.
As Staten Island’s district attorney, Donovan cites his biggest accomplishment as leading the City of New York in the conviction of dangerous felons. On his campaign Web site, he says his felony conviction rate stands at a staggering 94 percent, the highest in the city.
On Wall Street as a law-enforcement target, he writes on his Web site: “The Attorney General of New York has a long history of protecting investors and consumers from financial crimes, but we must promote fair markets and not bring cases simply to get headlines. Wall Street is the financial backbone of our state, and we must ensure that it continues to create jobs and remain the economic generator our state depends on.”
(Mojgan Sherkat is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism.)
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