Whatever Happened to the following People? [Archive] - Long Island Nassau Suffolk County New York Political Forum

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05-17-2005, 12:44 AM

Who said his statewide ambitions look bleak?

Suozzi aims high, but reality may not follow

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD
STAFF WRITER

May 17, 2005

If doubt remained in Long Island's political community that Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi's eyes are trained on the governor's mansion, he erased it last week.

Suozzi took the stage at Adelphi University to promote his vision for closing the national divide regarding abortion, signaling to Democrats and Republicans that his interest in filling the potholes of Nassau is waning.

"You'd have to be from Pluto to think that he's not running for governor," Suffolk County Democratic Chairman Richard Schaffer declared.

Yet, as the speculation mounts, so does the sense that the 42-year-old Democrat's reach for higher office may be beyond his political grasp.

Democratic insiders throughout the state put long odds on Suozzi's chances of winning a party primary, given that his putative gubernatorial rival, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, is a popular, well-financed national political figure. Suozzi, they pointed out, is a local official, well-regarded but little known by the general public outside his region. He has alienated top Democratic leaders, attacking them as the architects of a dysfunctional state government in Albany. And he faces re-election as county executive this fall, forcing him to simultaneously wage what amounts to a stealth statewide campaign.

The day after the abortion speech, the Siena Research Institute released a poll on the governor's race, with Spitzer at 55 percent and Republican Gov. George Pataki at 32 percent. The other 13 percent of voters expressed no opinion, and Suozzi was nowhere to be found. Pollsters said his name does not register with enough people to include him in a survey.

Party leaders say Suozzi intends to formally announce his fall re-election bid this Sunday on the steps of the State Supreme Court building in Mineola. Yet, with more than a year to a possible Democratic gubernatorial primary, Suozzi continues to drop clues to his wider aspirations. He has traveled the state, meeting with party leaders in the Bronx, rural Democrats in western New York, and immigrant activists in Albany. He was a hit at the Conservative Party convention. He has strayed so much from the norm for a Nassau executive that after his speech Republicans circulated a mock news release announcing Suozzi's intent to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"I have a few thoughts on that," Suozzi said, half joking, in an interview.

Though they poke fun, Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist, warns not to count Suozzi out. "He's tireless, he can raise money, and he starts out with a strong suburban base," he said. "Tom Suozzi doesn't have to worry. Eliot Spitzer is thinking about him."

Nonetheless, state Democrats have rallied around Spitzer, whose aides did not return calls to comment on Suozzi. In addition to name recognition, Spitzer has a successful state-wide race under his belt and a reputation as a slayer of Wall Street corruption.

This has more and more Democrats saying that, while Suozzi deserves respect for fixing Nassau's finances, he should stay out of the way and wait his day.

"I hope that Tom Suozzi is up there fighting for Eliot and not against him," said Len Lenihan, the Democratic chairman of Erie County, a party bastion and key primary battleground. "We like Tom Suozzi a lot. He's a good guy. Eliot Spitzer is going to be our next governor."

If Spitzer, 45, is the prince of his party, Suozzi is the precocious younger brother. He made headlines and enemies last year with his "Fix Albany" campaign, urging the defeat of some Democratic incumbent state legislators. The effort ousted a member of his own party, Assemb. David Sidikman of Old Bethpage. It's an offense Democrats remember.

Indeed, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the state's most powerful Democrat, and state Democratic Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell have accused Suozzi of disloyalty. Farrell did not return calls. But a Democratic assemblyman, who asked not to be named, said Suozzi "has no friends" in Albany. "He's starting out very deep in the hole and with very little prospect of getting any institutional support because of the fact that he's not considered by many to be a loyal Democrat."

For their part, Suozzi and his admirers say he relishes the role of outsider thinking on a grand scale. On Friday, for example, as state Democrats gathered for their spring convention in Rye Brook, Suozzi flew to Washington to speak on community planning, returning for a Uniondale senior luncheon.

As evidence of the potential, his backers also point to Suozzi's $3.2 million warchest and upset victory over Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck) in 2001. The abortion speech, in the view of some analysts, was designed to bring out untraditional, more conservative Democratic voters in a primary against Spitzer, although they said it is not a pivotal issue to primary voters.

Kim Devlin, Suozzi's top political strategist, would not comment on a primary, but she offered a glimpse of how he might portray himself in one.

"Tom is not your conventional type of public servant," Devlin said. "And he has a history of tackling difficult problems in a bold way."

Although Suozzi is a heavy underdog, experts noted that Gov. George Pataki was as well, before he defeated Mario Cuomo. Spitzer was relatively obscure when he unseated Dennis Vacco as attorney general in 1998.

Some experts said Suozzi has little to lose, because a defeat to Spitzer could help him for a future campaign. "The expectations are low, so it's a way of getting around the state and getting known better," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "As long as you don't divide the party and make it easy for the Republicans."

Suozzi refuses to discuss the speculation. But he has never been known for fearing consequences when he wants something, and told reporters as much after his speech.

"I try to do what I think is the right thing to do and it has served me well politically in the past," Suozzi said. "If it serves me poorly politically and I end up losing politically, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I can go on with the rest of my life."