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Wendy Long Hires Convention Tactician, Aims To Announce Senate Run This Week
Feb 21st - 6:04 pm
A source close to attorney Wendy Long confirmed City&State’s report that she is indeed aiming to announce a challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this week, making her the second Republican aiming to oust New York’s Democratic junior senator from her perch this fall.
Long, no relation to state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, first surfaced as a potential US Senate candidate at the Conservative Party’s annual political action conference in Colonie last month.
Wendy Long has never held political office. She’s a Manhattan attorney who serves as counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network and led the right’s opposition to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor back in 2009 when the Bronx native was tapped by President Obama to be the first Latina to sit on the nation’s highest court.
The Conservatives are apparently very interested in Wendy Long. The party’s executive committee interviewed three potential GOP challengers to Gillibrand during CPAC: Wendy Long, Marc Cenedella, who has since dropped out of the running, and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos. The chairman told me he came away believing she was “more decisive on the issues” and “more clear-cut” than her male counterparts.
The idea of running a woman against another woman is also appealing to a number of party leaders, Mike Long admitted, as it helps dilute Gillibrand’s likely argument that defeating her would further reduce the already low number of women in Congress.
City&State’s Andrew Hawkins reported Wendy Long has reportedly hired a campaign manager: Dick Wadhams, a veteran Colorado GOP operative who ran Senate campaigns for John Thune and George Allen.
She has also hired GOP operative Lynn Krogh, which is a significant development since there’s more than one Republican vying for the party’s nod to face off against Gillibrand in the November general election.
Poll: NY Voters Oppose Gov’t Mandates On Catholic Institutions
Feb 14th - 4:02 pm
A reader forwarded a mini-poll commissioned by the state Conservative Party that found a clear majority of New Yorkers strongly disapprove of federal regulations and mandates that would force practicing Catholics and Catholic organizations to “assist” in social matters that conflict with their religious beliefs and teachings.
Specifically mentioned in the poll question, which was posed by the GOP firm McLaughlin & Associates, were abortions, gay marriages, adoptions by gay parents and the use of contraceptives. Opposition is high across all categories – race, sex, political and religious affiliation.
This comes on the heels of the dust-up caused by the Obama administration’s mandate of free contraception coverage – even at Catholic-affiliated organizations like hospitals and universities.
The White House backtracked late last week with a compromise that would enable women who work for these organizations to obtain birth control directly from their insurance providers and not their employers. But Catholic bishops, led by Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, say that compromise doesn’t go far enough, and they have vowed to fight the president on this.
State Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long told me this question was “piggybacked” on another McLaughlin & Associates poll (in other words, he didn’t have to pay for the whole thing). He was pleasantly surprised by the results, particularly since national numbers also out today seem to contradict these findings somewhat, revealing Obama has not lost support among key Catholic swing voters since the contraception controversy broke.
“I was surprised twice,” Long told me. “I was surprised that these numbers were so high, and I was surprised by the national numbers I’m hearing today. All I can say is that the way the question was asked, I believe we got real answers here. This is an accurate poll.”
Long said he doesn’t believe voters support one candidate over another based on any single issue, or even two or three issues. That said, he does believe “there’s some roon to use these issues in the campaign – not just against Obama but against other candidates at the state level.”
McEneny On Ackerman vs. McCarthy: ‘First I’ve Heard Of It’
Feb 9th - 4:51 pm
I just caught Assemblyman Jack McEneny on his way back from today’s LATFOR hearing in Smithtown, and asked him if there was any truth to this morning’s DN report that the districts of two downstate House members – Gary Ackerman and Carolyn McCarthy – will be merged in the next round of redistricting, forcing the veteran Democrats to choose between duking it out in a primary and early retirement.
“No such decision has been made…This is the first I’ve heard the specificity of two particular districts being merged,” the Albany Democrat and LATFOR co-chair replied. “Actually, the first time I heard it was a couple of hours ago – 11 o’clock this morning – when Senator (Mike) Nozzolio (the GOP LATFOR co-chair) asked me if I read the paper.”
“There’s been other specualtion too. One thing we’re being very productive on in this state is rumors. There’s lots of them and they’re multiplying.”
Now, to be clear, there’s been talk of a potential merger of NY-4 and NY-5 for months now, fueled in party by persistent speculation about McCarthy’s imminent retirement. (She’s been about to give up politics to spend more time with her family since at least 2008). The Long Island lawmaker also weathered a tough challenge last year from Republican Fran Becker.
McCarthy recently reported raising just over $200,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011 and ended the year with $636,210 in cash on hand – a healthy sum and one that few elected officials with their eye on retirement would likely bother to raise. Ackerman, on the other hand, raised just $50,000, but has about $500,000 in the bank.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver kicked speculation about a McCarthy vs. Ackerman fight when he told the DN he would prefer to see NY-9 preserved because he considers it a Democratic district. Ever since Republican Rep. Bob Turner won former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s seat in a special election last year, insiders have discussed the possibility that legislators would carve up the district, helping adjacent incumbents like Rep. Joe Crowley while also getting halfway to the goal of eliminating two seats.
McEneny made it quite clear that when LATFOR gets done with its House maps – something he does not envision occuring until the “very last days” of February – it’s a safe bet that no district, even those that are “quote-unquote ‘kept,’” as the assemblyman put it, will look much like it did before due to population shifts. Every district has to have 717,007 people in it, and some of them – like NY-1 on the tip of Long Island – are off by many thousands.
McEneny said LATFOR members still haven’t decided whether there will be one uber-redistricting bill with the Senate, Assembly and House lines, or two bills separating the state and congressional maps. It’s possible that the Assembly and Senate could go their own ways on the House maps, too. That’s what happened in 2000 when the two sides couldn’t agree. The whole thing got kicked to a special master by a judge, and, as McEneny said, “we wound up with a composite.”
Mike Long On Wendy Long (Updated)
Jan 31st - 1:22 pm
State Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long stopped by the CapTon studios on his way home to NYC after a very successful 50th anniversary CPPAC in Colonie this weekend to chat a bit about the three would-be Republican challengers to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand who interviewed with his executive committee mebers yesterday.
The trio: Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, who is the only formally announced candidate in the race at the moment; Internet entrepreneur Marc Cenedella, who ran into a bit of an Internet snafu last week; and attorney Wendy Long (no relation to the chairman), whose potential candidacy wasn’t even on the radar until this weekend.
I asked Long which of the candidate had most impressed him. He half-jokingly accused me of asking an “unfair” question, but then said:
“I have to admit that Wendy Long was more decisive on issues, more clear-cut. She understands the Constitution very clearly.”
“She clerked for (US Supreme Court Justice) Clarence Thompson. She worked in the United States Senate for Senator (Robert) Humphreys and Senator (William) Armstrong, so she has a real grasp of the issues….She may not make the run, but if she does make the run, I think she does well. If she doesn’t make the run, the other two certainly would be in contention.”
Wendy Long serves as counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network. She’s perhaps best known, to those who are familiar with her work, for leading the right’s opposition to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor back in 2009 when the Bronx native was tapped by President Obama to be the first Latina to sit on the nation’s highest court.
According to Chairman Long, she’s still “talking to people” about whether she could make a viable challenge to Gillibrand. Fundraising is a big concern.
Gillibrand had $7.1 million on hand as of the end of September (her fourth quarter report is due out any day now). UPDATE: A Gillibrand campaign source tells The Capital’s Reid Pillifant the senator raised $1.8 million during the last three months of 2011 and now has just over $8 million on hand.
Maragos has said he’ll spend up to $5 million of his own money on his campaign. Cenedella reportedly is willing to at least match that, and I’ve heard the number $15 million tossed around, which helps explain why the Gillibrand people are so intend on trying to kill his candidacy – or, at the very least, maim it – before it gets off the ground.
Mike Long told me he likes the idea of challenging a woman with another woman. It certainly does level the playing field a bit. He also didn’t rule out the possibility that the Conservative Party might go its own way in selecting a candidate, which would be good for Gillibrand if the GOP goes in a different direction, since it would split the vote on the right.
The chairman also left the door open to a move similar to the one he pulled in the 2010 governor’s race, when his party helds its convention early and nominated former Rep. Rick Lazio to try to force the GOP to do the same. (As you’ll recall, state GOP Chairman Ed Cox wooed Democrat-turned-Republican Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy into the race, but he didn’t get onto the ballot at the convention. Lazio ended up losing the primary to Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino).
Lorigo: Local Conservative Nod For Grisanti Won’t Come Easy
Jan 30th - 11:43 am
One of the byproducts of the Senate GOP’s plan to gerrymander the district of their most vulnerable member, Sen. Mark Grisanti, so it’s entirely within the boundaries of Erie County is that the Conservative Party endorsement will be controlled by local officials and not state Chairman Mike Long.
Theorectically, that’s helpful to Grisanti, who very much needs the Conservative line, but lost his chance of landing it – in Long’s eyes, anyway – when he crossed over to vote “yes” on same-sex marriage with the Democrats.
Erie County Conservative Chairman Ralph Lorigo told me and Nick Reisman last last night’s CPPAC that he hasn’t locked the door against Grisanti the way Long did for teh Democrat-turned-Republican senator and his three GOP colleagues who heeded Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call to provide the deciding votes for gay marriage.
On the other hand, Lorigo said, Grisanti has to come through an executive board of 35 people and “convince a number of those people that he’s deserving at this point in time.” The local Conservatives had “high hopes” for Grisanti, the chairman said, and they weren’t thrilled that he had indicated he would vote “no” on marriage and then changed his mind.
“That vote hurts Mark Gristanti in terms of getting a conservative endorsement,” Lorigo told us. “….I gave him a list and said, ‘Mark, if you want to come back and try to seek our endorsement, you have to champion conservative values, and that’s his task, whether or not he can champion conservative values enough to be able to effectively ask for that endorsement.”
“…I’m talking about all values, social values and economic values. If he can come back and say that, ‘Look, I’ve done this in terms of the pro-life movement.’ Some of the things that were discussed here about the issues of pro-life or Second Amendment, as well as the economic issues. If he can come to us and have become a champion of some of those issues, he might be able to earn the endorsement. But it’s not going to be easy.”
Astorino Blasts Obama Administration
Jan 30th - 10:33 am
There was nary a mention of Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s speech at the second day of the Conservative Party Political Action Conference here at the Colonie Holiday Inn.
But the county executive, who is considered by political observers to be a statewide prospect one day, launched an extended critique of President Obama.
It’s not too surprising, considering that he is locked in a battle with the Obama administration’s Housing and Urban Development Department over the building of federally subsidized housing.
“In HUD’s view, you can have a government-owned building next to a Cape Cod, next to a ranch, next to a bomb factory. They don’t care,” Astorino said.
“It’s Orwellian,” Astorino he added.
(Note: While he didn’t mention Cuomo by name, the governor is a former HUD secretary during the Clinton administration. Astorino also praised Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long for opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage.)
During a question and answer period, his press people distributed copies of the National Review Online’s editorial praising Astorino’s stance on the housing issue.
But it wasn’t just the housing lawsuit that had Astorino fired up about Obama. He blasted the Democratic president for his foreign policy and specifically Obama’s perceived lack of support for Israel, a critique that has legs in conservative circles, especially in New York.
“You know, they said after Obama’s election that conservatism was dead. What a dumb thing to say,” Astorino said.
And Astorino dished out some read meat with a healthy dose of Occupy Wall Street criticism.
“Occupy Wall Street spent the summer questioning our nation’s basic tenets, just as the hippies and the yippies did before,” he said.
Outside the conference, Astorino sidestepped questions about his plans for running for statewide office. First he’ll have to win re-election in 2013 and could face tough challenges, possibly from Assemblywoman Amy Paulin or even former AG candidate Sean Coffey who said he was approached to run.
Fueling his chances of actually building accomplishments in Westchester was his successful campaign last year to help elect Republicans to the Board of Legislators in order to break the Democratic supermajority.
“Now we actually have more power and there are going to be far more negotiations,” Astorino said.
A New Challenger To Gillibrand?
Jan 29th - 1:54 pm
There’s a buzz at the state Conservative Party’s annual political action conference about the emergence of a potential new challenger to New York’s junior US senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.
The name I’ve been hearing is Wendy Long, (no relation to state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long), a Manhattan attorney who serves as counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network.
In that position, she led the right’s opposition to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor back in 2009 when the Bronx native was tapped by President Obama to be the first Latina to sit on the nation’s highest court.
According to a Republican source, Long has been talking quietly to several people about possibly taking on Gillibrand this fall.
Running a woman against another woman is something political leaders like to do. It would dilute Gillibrand’s whole working mother/more-women-in-politics approach – something she has been increasingly focused on over the past year with the creation of her Off the Sidelines campaign.
I’m told Long might show up here in Colonie to talk to CPPAC attendees.
Already here: Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, who is so far the only Republican who has formally announced a campaign against Gillibrand; and Marc Cenedella, the Internet entrepreneur who is also mulling a challenge to Gillibrand and has sustained some significant attacks from her camp in recent weeks.
Long: Turner Victory Bodes Well For Senate Special
Dec 21st - 2:32 pm
Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long acknowledged this afternoon that Democrats face a clear advantage when it comes to holding onto disgraced former Sen. Carl Kruger’s seat in Brooklyn.
“There’s big enrollment issues, but the other side of the coin is it’s a special election and anything can happen,” Long said in a phone interview.
Kruger entered a tearful guilty plea on Tuesday, admitting to accepting $1 million worth of bribes in exchange for personally ushering through favorable state contracts. In doing so, the Brooklyn Democrat resigned his seat effective immediately, setting up a special election in the 27th Senate District.
Long said the upset victory of Republican Bob Turner over Democrat David Weprin (in a Brooklyn/Queens district with a heavy Democratic enrollment) is good comparison of the unpredictably nature of special elections.
“I think that’s the clear example of why it’s possible we can win this thing,” he said. “You got to have the right candidate.”
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district 89,670 to 26,994 with 33,044 registered independents, according to the Board of Elections.
But Azi Paybarah received a similar conclusion from Brooklyn Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar. So far the only potential Republican candidate is lawyer David Storobin who already has a campaign committee up and running.
Naturally, there are some caveats with such a comparison.
The CD-9′s demographics are different than that of SD-27 and Democrats feel they have a potentially strong candidate in Councilman Lew Fidler (though he’s been careful not to formally announce a campaign).
A Republican victory would be a major development in which party controls the chamber. Republicans have a 32-seat majority and would certainly love to capture a Democratic seat before the coming round of redistricting.
Bad Blood Leads To Bad News For Suffolk Conservative Chair
Dec 15th - 3:59 pm
A reader forwarded a rather stunning story in today’s Smithtown News, a Long Island weekly, that alleges the powerful boss of Suffolk County’s Conservative party, Ed Walsh, lied about his criminal record when he applied for his current job as a corrections officer.
Documents from Walsh’s personnel file, including details of a background check conducted in 1990 by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office, were disseminated by retired state prosecutor Lawrence Gray, the paper reports. (The story isn’t on-line, but it appears in full after the jump).
They reveal Walsh was convicted of sexual assault while attending the University of Maryland in the 1980s and also arrested in Nassau County in 1989 for criminal mischief in the third degree – a charge that was later dropped to disorderly conduct, to which the chairman pleaded guilty.
Based on these incidents, about which Walsh was not forthcoming with his would-be employers, and the fact that he was allegedly rejected from a job with the NYPD due to “drug-related irregularities,” the lieutenant conducting the background check determined Walsh was not eligible to be a corrections officer, yet he has held that title for more than two decades now.
Walsh dismissed the allegations about his past as a “cut-and-paste job” and “a lot of garbage,” adding: “It’s not like I snuck in here 22 years ago.” The chairman said he would be pursuing a libel case against Gray, and also suggested Gray broke the law by obtaining and disseminating his personnel file.
Here’s where things really get tangled.
The Smithtown News story notes that Walsh’s paperwork has been “circulated among political insiders for the past year,” and quotes an anonymous source who says the documents were obtained by an investigator working for supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.
I spoke with Catsimatidis briefly this afternoon, and he told me that was not, in fact, the case. But he also acknowledged there’s no love lost between himself and Walsh, and he admitted that he has a copy of the paperwork Gray has been sending out, insisting he received them “anonymously” during the NY-1 race.
Long To Skelos: Read Andrew’s Lips
Dec 5th - 1:58 pm
Powerful Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long urged Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos this afternoon to not take up any proposals that would raise taxes in a letter released this afternoon.
Writes Long:
New York has a spending problem that will not be resolved if any attempt to increase taxes is done when you return to Albany this week or in the upcoming Legislative Session. New York has lost population due to the high taxes imposed by runaway spending on programs that do not accomplish what was promised or contribute to the economic well being of the state. To consider any increase is a disservice to the people who remain in our state. Instead of considering taking more from our citizens, we must expand the base with new job creation. Job creation does not come to a state that continues to punish those who work hard to succeed.
Long also refers back to the conservative New York Post editorial page’s daily reminder — titled “Read Andrew’s Lips” — that Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has to end its high-tax reputation.
The chairman actually went further with CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind, who recorded this: “If they vote to raise taxes, it’s certainly sending a signal to members of the Conservative Party that you don’t agree with the philosophy of the party and are not willing to stand up and fight for the future of the state of New York.”
The Conservative ballot line is considered crucial for Republicans in order to win state and federal races, which certainly adds to Skelos’ calculus should he allow a vote on any plan that means more revenue from taxpayers. Still, it’s difficult to gauge Long’s influence with the Senate GOP.
He warned Republicans who received his endorsement not to vote for the same-sex marriage bill. Long also initially said he would be comfortable with allowing a bill to go to the floor, but later reversed himself.
The full letter after the jump. More >
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