Columns

Suffolk’s players in the governor’s race

If Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is able to snag the Democratic nomination to run for governor and former Suffolk County Legislator Rick Lazio gets the Republican nod — and he is the front-runner for it now — an amazing and historical pairing of two Suffolk men in the race to lead New York State will be in place.


Never has a Suffolk resident been New York’s governor. Hugh Carey was a part-time Shelter Island resident when he was governor between 1975 and 1983. But his permanent residence was Brooklyn where he had been a seven-term congressman.


In 1974, Democrat Carey ran against Republican Perry Duryea Jr. of Montauk for governor. Later, Mr. Duryea would lament how a Suffolk resident was viewed in the race — to upstaters as someone somehow associated with New York City while to city people, not one of them. It was a geographic disadvantage, he mused.


But if it turns out that there will be two Suffolk residents running against each other, that disadvantage will be moot. Voters will have to be concerned with other things — notably differences in positions, experience and persona. Republican Lazio, of Brightwaters, went on to four terms in the House of Representatives before he took a chance — he like Democrat Levy is not averse to taking risks — and gave up a run for a fifth term to go against Hillary Clinton in what turned out to be her first win for the U.S. Senate.


Some spunky behavior by Mr. Lazio — he and Mr. Levy are lawyers and can be tough verbally — was considered a turning point in that 2000 contest. In a debate, Mr. Lazio, a former assistant Suffolk district attorney, challenged Ms. Clinton in a manner many considered overly aggressive.


Mr. Lazio’s big break in his bid for governor was the withdrawal from the contest of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (a part-time Hamptons resident) and Mr. Giuliani, at the same time, giving his endorsement to Mr. Lazio.


Mr. Levy, now starting his seventh year as Suffolk County executive, has decided to explore running for governor because, he told me, “I just saw how dire the situation is in Albany. This state is really running out of money.” It’s in “political quicksand” and needs “someone to come in with a very strong hand as I’ve done in Suffolk County.”


He noted that when he took office as county executive in 2004, “I inherited a $238 million deficit. The end of the year we had a balanced budget and received the highest bond rating. Now we’ve had six years without a general fund tax increase.”


The selection of a governor this year is “all about finances, getting a good fiscal manager in there. That’s my resumé,” said Mr. Levy.


He knows New York government. Unlike Mr. Lazio, he was a state official — a state assemblyman from 2001 until becoming county executive. “You have to force legislators to prioritize. Now legislators just want to spend money. The executive has to put brakes on … You can’t be afraid to take on special interests and people know I’m not shy in that way.”


Reflecting on what he observed about state government as an assemblyman, Mr. Levy said he found it “very dysfunctional, very leader-oriented” and with “an insatiable appetite to spend.”


Will he be able to win a Democratic primary and how might one play out? Will incumbent Governor David Paterson, in the end, run for re-election? Will Attorney General Andrew Cuomo jump in? Would a three-way race that splits the vote benefit Mr. Levy? How would Mr. Levy do in a one-to-one contest against Mr. Paterson or Mr. Cuomo? Also, if he wins and thus must resign as county executive, who would vie for that office?


Of Mr. Lazio, Mr. Levy, a fellow Islip Town resident (he lives in Bayport), speaks of them having gotten along very well. “We liked each other personally” as Suffolk legislators. Of Mr. Paterson, he’s a “nice man with a good sense of humor.” And of Mr. Cuomo, “a decent person.”


But, as Mr. Levy sees it, the central issue is whether “people see my credentials as exactly what the state needs right now” and he believes he has “the best credentials to prevent the state from going bankrupt.” In a run for governor, he would have a “very specific reform agenda that seeks to curb state spending and provide reform and innovation in state government.”’


I’ve observed Mr. Levy since he became a county legislator, at 26, in 1985, and Mr. Lazio since he became a county legislator, at 31, in 1990. Neither should be underestimated.