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Rick Lazio
NY GOP Operative Joins ‘Draft Trump’ Effort
Feb 16th - 12:41 pm
Lynn Krogh, a veteran GOP operative who has worked on numerous statewide campaigns in New York, has signed on to serve as national political director for a committee that is trying to draft Donald Trump into the 2012 presidential race.
Krogh served as deputy press secretary to former Gov. George Pataki. She’s currently executive director of the Young Republican National Federation and state chair of the New York Young Republicans.
This past election cycle, Krogh first worked for gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio and is credited with masterminding his GOP convention strategy that blocked his would-be primary opponents, Democrat-turned-Republican Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and Carl Paladino, from getting placed on the ballot.
After the Buffalo businessman went the petition route and defeated the former Long Island congressman in the September 2010 primary, Krogh went to work on Paladino’s campaign.
(Also deeply involved in the effort to get the NY developer into the race: Roger Stone, who was an advisor to Paladino during his unsuccessful effort to defeat Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo).
The Draft Trump committee was formed by Iraq War veteran Nick McLaughlin of St. Charles, Missouri, who said in a press release that he has never before been politically active and also has never met Trump.
He has, however, met Krogh – the two crossed paths at the recent CPAC gathering at which Trump was among the candidates who spoke to the conservative faithful. Trump has said he will make a decision about whether to throw his hat into the ring by June.
In addition, the Draft Trump committee announced it has hired a New Hampshire coordinator: Mark J. LaLiberte, who served as the public policy advisor for former Manchester Mayor-turned-Congressman Frank Guinta.
Conservative Party’s Anti-Mosque Contributor Revealed
Jan 19th - 11:36 am
The state Conservative Party’s TV ad campaign against the controversial mosque and cultural center proposed for construction near Ground Zero that become a focus of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign was nearly single-handedly funded by a single individual.
Robert Mercer, co-CEO of the mega-hedge fund manager Renaissance Technologies, contributed $1 million to the party in late July, accounting for almost all of the $1.077 million raised by the Conservatives during the last six-month cycle. H/T POLITICO.
According to NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney, that $1 million is the second largest donation ever given by an individual to a party committee.
Other notable contributors included: GOP/Conservative state comptroller candidate Harry Wilson ($5,000); the Nassau County Conservative Party ($10,000); the Nassau County GOP ($5,000); the NRA ($5,000); and the Uniformed Firefighters Association ($5,000).
State Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long confirmed to POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman (still working while on maternity leave) that Mercer indeed paid for the ad. He also maxed out to the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Rick Lazio, who appeared in the spot.
Lazio, of course, lost the GOP primary to Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, who also used the mosque as a wedge issue during the campaign. The former Long Island congressman then dropped out of the race rather than remain in the running in the November general election on the minority party line.
Row D went to Paladino, who won a sufficient number of votes, comparable to other minory parties, to restore the Conservatives to Row C for the next four years.
Lazio Calls Out Rangel, Defends Steele
Dec 15th - 8:43 am
Former Long Island Congressman/gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio mixed it up on MSNBC yesterday, weighing in on the recent censure of Rep. Charlie Rangel and embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s bid to retain his party leadership post.
Lazio called Rangel “a lovely man,” but said he sides with those who think it’s time for the Harlem Democrat to step aside, saying:
“I served with Charlie. I got along great with him. I’d like to call him my friend. I have to call him out on this: He should not be in that position. It is not right. It sends the wrong signal. It’s why people are frustrated and angry and they lose faith that government can do the big things, because they can’t get the small things right.”
As for Steele, who is under increased pressure now that he has decided to shoot for another two-year term, Lazio said he believes the chairman “has some good points to make” following a strong GOP showing in the 2010 elections.
“Republicans picked up 60 plus seats in the House of Representatives,” Lazio argued. “Nancy Pelosi is no longer speaker. Republicans are in control.”
“They pick up seats in the Senate. They have picked up more state legislative seats than any time in the history of America in this last cycle. They picked up two governors, big governor’s seats, last year, picked up a whole slew of governors this year. If it’s about winning, Michael Steele’s got the ability to say: I raised money with Republicans out of power and this was a huge Republican year.”
Lazio: Wilson Would Have Won With Me
Nov 3rd - 6:06 pm
Now that he is formally no longer a judicial candidate after taking what he laughingly described as a “brutal” beating in the Bronx state Supreme Court race, Rick Lazio is “freed” – as he put it – to tell us how he really feels.
And he’s not holding back.
“(Carl) Paladino performed, it seems to me in terms of numbers, about as well as Jay Townsend,” the ex-gubernatorial candidate said, comparing his erstwhile primary foe to the little-known Republican trounced by Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday.
“To win statewide, you have to be credible at showing balance,” Lazio continued. “You can’t veer off into the far corners of either ideological extreme and expect to do well. It pretty much played out the way I expected in the governor’s race. It has to be pretty painful for Harry Wilson, having gotten as close as he did, to come up so short.”
I asked Lazio if he thought Wilson would have won had he been the GOP/Conservative standard-bearer instead of Paladino, and he replied:
“I think he would have won, yes. I think I would have provided a lift in the suburban areas; I would have run more competitively statewide, too.”
Lazio: ‘No Regrets’
Nov 2nd - 7:54 am
Former gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio joined me on CapTon last night and insisted he has “no regrets” about dropping out of the race to cede the Conservative line to Carl Paladino, although he refused to say whether he will be voting today for the Buffalo businessman who trounced him in the GOP primary on Sept. 14.
In his first extended TV appearance since he quit the race in September, Lazio said his judicial candidacy (for state Supreme Court in the Bronx), which he used to get off Row D, prevents him from making any endorsements or overt political statements. He did, however, lament the tone of the governor’s race and its lack of focus on issues.
“It would have been a different race for sure,” Lazio said when I asked him if he wished he had stuck it out in the gubernatorial contest.
“I don’t think it would have been likely that it would have effected the ultimate outcome in terms of who the victor might be, and my thinking of it at the time was I did not want to create unintended consequences where people were voting for me and one candidate or the other was a net beneficiary.”
“…I thought the right and honorable thing for me to do honestly was to step aside even though I had won that Conservative Party line, so I have no regrets at all about that.”
Lazio did take a swipe at state GOP Chairman Ed Cox for candidate shopping and failing to unite early behind contenders who had no significant primary opposition (actually, only comptroller hopeful Harry Wilson falls into that category).
The former congressman said he thinks criticism of Cox is “fair,” although I’ve heard some say he’ll be vindicated in backing Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy if Paladino loses big today. (Heck, even Eliot Spitzer thinks Levy would have beat Andrew Cuomo).
Conservative Ad Touts Paladino’s Policies, Not Paladino
Oct 25th - 7:58 am
The state Conservative party just released its first TV ad of the general election campaign that urges New Yorkers to vote Row D in the governor’s race if they want to “send Albany a message” about being “fed up with the political games.”
The press release says the ad, which will air statewide, is intended to remind voters that it “means more when you vote on the Conservative Party line for Carl Paladino.” But the Buffalo businessman makes no appearance in the ad, unlike the party’s pre-primary spots, which prominently featured its first choice for governor: Rick Lazio.
(If I recall correctly, the Conservative Party did at least two ads for Lazio, who, unlike Paladino, did not have his own funds to fall back on during the primary battle).
Instead, the ad focuses on some of Paladino’s broad-brush policy proposals like cutting taxes and forcing state lawmakers to fully disclose their outside income.
There has been some concern about reaching that all-important 50,000-vote mark among minor party leaders this fall, particularly since a judge declined to give the WFP and Conservatives the injunction they sought on the double-vote question.
Here’s the script of the Conservative Party’s ad:
“Fed up with the political games in Albany? This year say so. Vote on the Conservative Party line and tell the politicians you want to turn New York around.”
“Vote to cut taxes 10 percent across the board and create jobs. Vote to require drug-testing for welfare benefits. And vote to force lawmakers to disclose outside income and attack corruption. Send Albany a message. Vote on the Conservative Party line. Carl Paladino for governor.”
Vote Row D from Howard Lim, Jr. on Vimeo.
Lazio: No Debate Regrets
Oct 22nd - 1:12 pm
As a postscript to Monday’s seven-way debate (if you can honestly call it that), I thought it was interesting to hear former gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio say he does not regret the fact that he never debated Carl Paladino – a move many believe probably contributed to his loss in the Sept. 14 GOP primary.
“There are a lot of people who have said that would have just accelerated the tenor of the campaign that occurred after the primary was over,” Lazio said at the Rochester Rotary Club earlier this week (his first public appearance since withdrawing from the race almost a month ago).
“I didn’t have any interest in engaging in that,” the former Long Island congressman continued. “I had every expectation of having debates in the general election, which I said many times during the campaign, myself.”
“It’s not as if I didn’t want to debate. I just felt like the general election was the right time to debate in this particular situation. Have no regrets about that.”
Lazio Emerges
Oct 18th - 3:16 pm
Former GOP/Conservative gubernatorial hopeful and current state Supreme Court candidate Rick Lazio will make his first public appearance tomorrow since dropping out of the race almost a month ago following his big primary loss to Carl Paladino.
As a locale for his debut, Lazio has chosen the Rochester Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon forum, at which he will deliver a speech entitled: “Life on the Campaign Trail & Prescription for New York Economic Growth.”
Lazio has not endorsed Paladino and has been declining most sit-down interviews, saying he is restricted from making political statements by the fact that he is now (technically speaking) running for a judgeship in the Bronx (which he has made quite clear he will decline in the very unlikely scenario that he actually wins).
That did not stop him, however, from weighing in following Paladino’s anti-gay statements in Brooklyn, which the former congressman called “both counterproductive and an embarrassment.”
Lazio spokesman David James said the former candidate will be discussing “the decisions he went through when he left the race for governor, and what at the time he thought was the plan to fix the state’s economic issues and high unemployment.”
James also said Lazio agreed to do this event prior to withdrawing from the race and has decided to honor the commitment.
Paladino Hires
Oct 15th - 1:15 pm
Amid widespread consensus that his campaign is rudderless (at best) and in complete chaos (at worst), Carl Paladino has added bulked up his staff in hopes of righting the ship heading into the final weeks of the governor’s race, a source familiar with the new additions confirmed.
On the political side, the Buffalo businessman has added two members of Gotham Management Group:
- Lynn Krogh, a former Pataki administration aide who worked until the bitter end with Paladino’s vanquished GOP primary foe, Rick Lazio, and was widely praised for her vote counting operation that blocked Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy from getting on the ballot at the convention.
- Andrew Abdel-Malik, who worked on former US Senate hopeful David Malpass’ unsuccessful campaign this past fall. Other credits include former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s failed 2008 presidential bid, as well as a stint at the RNC, the Bush White House and the House Republican Policy Committee.
- Vince Casale, who runs a Cooperstown-based consulting firm, The Casale Group, with his father, former Assemblyman Anthony Casale, who was helping Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci with his never-realized bid for statewide office earlier this year.
On the communications side, the following people have signed on:
- Kirk Bell. Worked with Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo and his mentor, Roger Stone, on Jack Kemp’s 1988 presidential bid.
- Michael Johns, a former George H.W. Bush administration speechwriter and former top aide to ex-New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean. He’s also a leader in the national Tea Party movement.
Apparently, both Bell and Johns are members of the Jefferson Ale Club, which has been described to be as a “secret society” of conservatives formed by a number of low-ranking Reagan appointees in the 1980s.
Lazio Slams Paladino
Oct 11th - 12:57 pm
Former Rep. Rick Lazio, who has remained silent since dropping out of the governor’s race and relinquishing the Conservative line to his former primary foe, Carl Paladino, has weighed in on the Buffalo businessman’s anti-gay remarks in Brooklyn yesterday, saying the whole discussion is an embarrassing waste of time.
“When I left the race for Governor I said this race needed to be about ideas and policies to grow the economy and bring jobs back to New York,” Lazio said in a statement forwarded by his former campaign spokesman David James.
“At a time when New Yorkers most need inspiration and leadership, we get division and disrespect. New Yorkers can’t find jobs and pay their bills and attacks on sexual orientation are both counterproductive and an embarrassment.”
As you’ll recall, Lazio had some harsh words for both Paladino and his Democratic opponent, AG Andrew Cuomo, when he bowed out of the race, calling them “flawed individuals, flawed in terms of public character, flawed in terms of ideas and principles that will restore growth and pride to our great state.”
Even as his fellow Republicans and erstwhile Conservative backers rushed to embrace Paladino as their standard-nearer, Lazio refused to join in. Looks like he very well might end up getting the last laugh.
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