This website has been pretty dead recently, and I could think of nothing better than a discussion of the governor’s race to liven it up a bit. Let me preface the following by saying that while this is a decidedly pro-Levy essay, it is my own opinion and we will not as a Club be endorsing a candidate in the primary. We will support whoever wins against the Democratic nominee. Please make comments on our facebook page.
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It’s only a couple days since Steve Levy, the Suffolk County Executive, announced that he would switch his registration from Democrat in order to run for Governor as a Republican, and already things are getting ugly. Rick Lazio, the former Republican Congressman (also from Suffolk County) has been in the race since September, and his some of his supporters are furious at the NYGOP establishment for allowing and in some cases encouraging primary competition from a recently converted Democrat.
Anger is not one of the best known tools for building sound arguments, and the things we have heard from the Lazio campaign and its supporters reflect that. Whatever else you might say about Steve Levy, he has published a plan for rescuing New York from its biggest enemy, its ever increasing budget. This plan as written, is unquestionably based on Republican principles. It includes tax and spending caps, reducing the size of government, and taking on the public sector unions. To back it up, he cites his record as county executive of exercising financial prudence and restraint. And what’s the first rebuttal we get from the Lazio camp? Errr……STEVE LEVY IS A CRASS TALKER!! Well, shucks. He used the f-word a whole bunch of times, and put me down as being suitably outraged. Steve Levy is definitely NOT invited to my kid’s next birthday party. Thank goodness the press release directed me to the transcript so that I could read exactly what I need to protect myself from.
The same day, Lazio also released a handy list of the ‘Top Ten Facts about Steve Levy,’ a number of of which (perhaps even as many as 2) are substantive critiques of Levy’s policy positions. Any mention of Levy’s failures during his past six years as executive of one of the largest counties in the state is deftly deferred for another time, so as to sharpen the focus on the critical period of 7 or 8 years ago when Levy apparently toed the Democrat line during his term in the Assembly.
Another anti-Levy argument is that Lazio should be rewarded since he has been out campaigning since September, which is asserted to be good for the (Republican) party (though I don’t hear anyone claiming that its done Rick himself much good). This is an extremely compelling argument, which is why I’m certain that all of those making it will continue to support Bruce Blakeman once Pataki enters the Senate race against Gillibrand. None of this is to say that there aren’t good arguments for Lazio and against Levy. For starters, Rick seems to be quite a bit taller than his opponent, and he retains his boyish good looks into his 40s (wait! I mean 50’s!!).
But seriously, there may be reasons to prefer Rick Lazio over Steve Levy. There may well be weaknesses in Levy’s tenure as county executive which aren’t apparent from the first glance. Perhaps Rick is preferable from a social issues standpoint. But right now, he seems to worried about slinging mud than debating the issues. I’ll admit to taking seriously the answer to the question: Are you now, or have you ever been, a Democrat? But while the ‘turncoat’ and ‘opportunist’ labels are easy to throw around, I think the thing that most voters care about is where a candidate stands on the issues over time, and whether his experience demonstrates the ability to achieve his goals. If Steve Levy becomes the nominee of the party, it will be a simple matter to turn the narrative from ‘traitor to his party’ to ‘true to his principles, rather than a label’- and the Republican party can benefit by treating his party switch as an opportunity to advertise to other fiscally conservative Democrats that they may have a home in the Republican party. If Rick Lazio gets the nomination, he’s going to need to do a heck of lot better at making the case for himself against Andrew Cuomo than he’s done so far against Steve Levy.