Posted on 03/20/2006 11:47:15 AM PST by neverdem
After a stormy political winter, New York Republicans are suddenly speaking to donors, party activists, and reporters about a candidate for governor who just might help their chances to win this fall. Oh, and did they mention he was a Democrat?
The candidate, Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, is receiving a lot of Republican love these days because he is trying to do what the Republicans have failed to do over the last year: bloody the leading Democratic candidate for governor, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who sits atop a 50-point lead in the polls.
Mr. Suozzi and Mr. Spitzer, two of New York's most alpha male politicians, will vie in the Democratic primary this September. Yet they have been maneuvering against each other for weeks, and last Monday they began a war of campaign commercials on television — a surprisingly early move that is also surprisingly risky for an underdog like Mr. Suozzi, given that his ads cost more than $1 million of the $5 million he has in the bank.
That Mr. Suozzi is competing aggressively against Mr. Spitzer, who has $19 million on hand, delights Republican Party leaders, who describe Mr. Suozzi as their proxy challenger to Mr. Spitzer for now.
William F. Weld, one of three Republican candidates for governor, has been going to unusual lengths to talk up a man who is ostensibly a Democratic rival: He praised Mr. Suozzi last week at a news conference and to friends, and even invited Mr. Suozzi to hoist a pint to St. Patrick with him on Friday at an Upper East Side pub. Mr. Suozzi was campaigning elsewhere and declined.
Mr. Weld, in an interview, said the Suozzi-Spitzer ad war may be helping his own fund-raising because donors are seeing a real fight for governor on...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Meier announces bid for Congress
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A speed bump for Spitzer
I saw Suozzi on our local Albany TV and if this guy runs it will be the first time I vote for a Democrat for Gov.
Are you feeling OK?
Suozzi is a really good man. Finally a dem with a coherent plan---I wish I could move back to NY and vote for him.
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