Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos has only been in office – the first elected post he has ever held – for less than four months, but he already has his eye on something bigger.

State Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long confirmed Maragos has expressed interest in challenging Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer this fall and will interview with party leaders next Wednesday.

Long said he met Maragos for the first time at a cocktail party/fundraiser hosted last week by his brother, Queens Conservative Party Chairman Tom Long.

Maragos approached the chairman and said he wanted to discuss a challenge to Schumer after he “cleared it up with certain people,” Mike Long said. He followed up with a phone call this week.

The chairman couldn’t say if the “certain people” included Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Mondello, who would no doubt be none too pleased to lose one of his countywide winners so early in the game. Maragos defeated two-term Democratic incumbent Howard Weitzman last fall in what turned out to be a near-sweep for the GOP (they also took the county executive’s office and control of the legislature, but didn’t dislodge Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice, who is now running for AG).

Long said he has also spoken to another potential Schumer opponent: GOP consultant Jay Townsend.

Long said he had been impressed by Townsend, although he did acknowledge that his candidacy is a little “different.”

“I’ve never seen it this way,” Long allowed. “…But he’s articulate and he knows all the issues. We talked about the problem, and I said: ‘You know, you certainly can’t run your campaign if you’re really interested in this.’ He understood that.”

Earlier today, Long also floated the name of cosmetics billionaire and term limits advocate Ron Lauder as a potential Schumer opponent, but a source close to Lauder dismissed that, saying it’s unlikely he’ll run.

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