Senate Bid Falls Victim to Bruno-Paterson Truce
June 2, 2008
Tim Green is pulling the plug on his plans to run for State Senate.
The move helps Republicans as they battle to preserve their one-seat majority. Mr. Green, below, a former football star and lawyer turned novelist who lives in the Syracuse area, had mulled a challenge to Senator John A. DeFrancisco, a Republican and relatively strong incumbent, for more than a year.
Mr. Green’s decision is a sign that Gov. David A. Paterson’s political truce with Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno is likely to make it harder for Democrats to capture the Senate for the first time in more than four decades. Mr. Green, 44, is telegenic — he has been a television sports commentator and a host of the show “A Current Affair” — and was personally courted to run by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. His candidacy would have forced the Republicans to tie up resources on a race that was otherwise unlikely to be competitive.
Mr. Paterson, on the other hand, never called Mr. Green and was not expected to make the kind of financial commitment that his predecessor had promised, party officials said.
“I think right now the reform mission that Governor Spitzer had laid out, and his plan of attack, got waylaid by his own personal issues,” said Mr. Green, who played football at Syracuse University and for the Atlanta Falcons.
“While I do think that Governor Paterson and Malcolm Smith want to carry that banner, I think because of the predicament they’re in, the timing isn’t right for me,” he added. (Mr. Smith, a Queens Democrat, is the Senate minority leader.)
Asked whether the disappearance of Mr. Spitzer’s resources was a factor in his decision, Mr. Green said, “Unfortunately, the reality of politics in New York State is that without campaign finance reform in place, and with lobbyists and special interests in a way controlling the state, you do need significant funding.”
John McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, said, “I think it’s just another recognition we’ve seen that the Democrats and the potential Democrats see the handwriting on the wall, and see there’s overwhelming support for our individual senators across the state.”
“It’s foretelling of what we expect in November,” he added.
Doug Forand, the top political strategist for the Senate Democrats, said Mr. Green “would have been a very tough contender.”
“Had it happened, it would have been great, but it does not seriously impact our overall strategy for November,” he added.
A Rochester-area Challenge
One candidate exits, and another enters. The Democrats have enlisted a former Bausch & Lomb executive, David R. Nachbar, to challenge Senator James S. Alesi, a Republican who represents much of the Rochester area.
“I’ve spent my entire career listening to people and understanding what their hopes, their skills, their ambition and their dreams are, and finding the best way to put people to work,” said Mr. Nachbar, who was an executive vice president of human resources at Bausch & Lomb.
“I’m not a politician; I’d rather be known as a public servant and as someone who can get things done, and that’s why I wanted to do this.”
He will face a tough battle. Mr. Alesi, a six-term incumbent, is not considered a weak candidate, and Republicans have an enrollment edge in the district.
“Alesi is very strong in that district,” said John McArdle, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno. He added that many previous potential candidates had seen that Mr. Alesi “would be overwhelmingly re-elected and decided to take a pass.”
First Lady’s Faux Pas
More intrigue over control of the Senate arose last week when the state’s first lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, was caught in a campaign gaffe.
Mrs. Paterson, left, wrote a letter of support and said she would attend a party in honor of Don Barber, a Democrat and supervisor of the Town of Caroline in Tompkins County. Mr. Barber is running against Senator James L. Seward of Otsego County, a longtime Republican incumbent. The problem was that she wrote her message of support on state letterhead — running afoul of campaign finance rules — and she appeared to tread on her husband’s informal agreement with the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, to steer clear of Senate races. Republicans bristled after the letter was reported last week by The Times Union of Albany.
“There must be remnants of the Spitzer administration that are downstairs again,” said Mr. Bruno’s spokesman, John McArdle, referring to governor’s office on the second floor of the Capitol (the Senate quarters are on the third).
He called the episode “badly handled and amateurish.”
The Paterson administration agreed, chalking it up to a series of oversights and Mrs. Paterson’s desire to help Mr. Barber, a family friend.
“As soon as we found out, we canceled the event,” said Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for the governor. “It was an honest mistake.”
“We took it incredibly seriously,” Ms. Duggan said. “It should not have happened.”
Source: NY Times
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