Posted on 06/13/2010 9:39:32 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Polling suggests most Republican candidates for statewide seats will be defeated in November. Two candidates, however, are in prime position to become the first Republicans in over a decade to serve in their respective seats.
Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan and Harry Wilson are the GOP nominees for attorney general and comptroller, respectively. Donovan received the GOP nod and avoided a primary when Onondaga County Comptroller Robert Antonacci decided not to challenge Donovan in a primary. Wilson gives the party a great shot at beating, as Republicans would call him, “unelected” Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Donovan, prior to becoming district attorney, served as chief of staff to Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari and later became deputy borough president. He is running on a platform of reforming Albany, combating financial, Medicaid and mortgage fraud, fighting to keep illegal guns out of New York and keeping residents of the state safe.
Wilson has never served in elected office. He received his Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and has been employed at numerous financial firms, including Goldman Sachs. In 2009, President Barack Obama named him to the Auto Task Force – the only Republican to serve on the panel responsible for reconfiguring Chrysler and General Motors.
The last Republican to hold the attorney general’s seat was Dennis Vacco’s one term from 1995 to 1999. Vacco lost to future governor Eliot Spitzer in the 1998 election.
Ed Regan was the last Republican comptroller. He served from Jan. 1979 to May 1993, when he resigned in the middle of his term.
Donovan and Wilson are in prime position to win their races. For Donovan, he is awaiting the winner of a five-way Democratic primary. In a recent Siena poll, only Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has a double-digit lead over Donovan, with the remaining four Democratic contenders holding between four and eight-point leads over the GOP’s nominee.
While Wilson is down over 20 points in the polls to DiNapoli, most New Yorkers don’t know or have no opinion of either candidate, meaning this race is still up in the air. DiNapoli has been calling for passage of a budget and warned this week of the impact a state government shutdown would have. But Wilson has been a critic, saying DiNapoli is not qualified to be comptroller.
Wilson may have history on his side regarding DiNapoli. In 2007, when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the state Legislature were battling over who should fill the term after Alan Hevesi vacated the seat, a panel looked at who was qualified for the post. DiNapoli was not the choice of the panel (they said he was not qualified for the position) and was not the choice of Spitzer. But, being an assemblyman, he had the backing of those who mattered: Fellow legislators.
Donovan and Wilson also don’t have to worry about a primary challenger, which seems like a rarity in Republican politics. GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Lazio will face a well funded challenge from Buffalo-area businessman Carl Paladino. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, was thought to be the most vulnerable of Democrats in New York, but Republicans could not agree on a nominee, with Bruce Blakeman and David Malpass securing enough support at the convention to be placed on the primary ballot. Even the race against Sen. Chuck Schumer has two Republicans, Gary Berntsen and Jay Townsend, facing off in a primary.
That leaves Donovan and Wilson. Both don’t have to worry about a primary. Both can focus on a general election fight. And both give Republicans their best shot to hold those seats since the 1990s.
She has challengers. We need to stop waiting for the GOP to field candidates.
NY has too many stupid voters, the same kind who voted for Alvin Greene. A bunch of folk who just reflexively vote stupid. They just want free stuff from the government, nothing else matters.
Donovan and Wilson are decent candidates who deserve to win, but they won’t. Or maybe the rain today has me in a glum mood.
I was hoping Rudy Giuliani would run for the Senate.
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