Renegade Dem Wants to Be Real Reformer

Renegade Dem Wants to Be Real Reformer

When Tom Suozzi defeated Tom Dinapoli in 2001 to become Nassau County executive, he did so without the support of his own party. Now Suozzi, who hopes to become governor of New York, faces a similar situation as he prepares for a Democratic primary showdown against current Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in less than two months.

Suozzi lost the party nomination, but he didn't lose his will to challenge Spitzer for the top job in Albany, and has been attacking the attorney general at nearly every stop - including a train stop in Mineola where he squared off face-to-face with Spitzer over property taxes.

But the lack of a party nomination isn't the only obstacle the Suozzi campaign will have to overcome in the next 60 days. Polls show Suozzi trailing Spitzer badly - even in his home county of Nassau - with one recent poll estimating that he is 60 percentage points behind.

The general consensus on Suozzi is that there isn't one. Many voters claim that they don't know enough about the Long Island elected official to make an informed opinion, unlike Spitzer, who used the post of attorney general to take on a host of big name corporations, which in turn made him a big name. Suozzi is trying to change that, however, and has been making a number of local appearances before small audiences to spread his message. One of the more recent was in Maspeth on Monday night, where he addressed a crowd that approached 100 people in the recently painted meeting hall of a Knights of Columbus on Grand Avenue.

"New York State government is so broke that it is affecting real New Yorkers," said Suozzi, who told the crowd that the state's reluctance, and in some cases the inability, to foot the bill for a number of public services is driving up local taxes.

Suozzi painted a grim picture of New York. The candidate described a state that is experiencing a mass exodus of residents who pay 72 percent above the national average in state and municipal taxes; a state that, if it began north of Rockland County, would be one of the poorest in the nation; and a state where the individual debt of each of its residents is second only to Alaska.

Suozzi inherited an equally grim state of affairs when he assumed the role of Nassau County executive. He has widely been credited with turning that county around, and hopes that record will carry him to victory in September. In fact, he repeated the slogan "I can do it, because I've done it" several times Monday evening.

"If you are going to add a room to your house and you ask a contractor, 'how many homes have you built' and they say 'none,' would you hire them?" said Suozzi following the meeting. "No, of course not. The problem is a lot of politicians are trial lawyers who can raise money and get elected, but they don't understand management."

Suozzi is the founder of FixAlbany.com, a political committee created to hold state legislators accountable - legislators Suozzi feels are more worried about the power brokers who deal out member items as opposed to the voters who decide if they keep their job. And they may have reason to feel complacent. According to Suozzi, of the 2,500 re-election campaigns waged over the last 20 years, only 34 incumbents have been defeated.

"More people in the state legislature have been indicted in the last three years than have lost reelection," added Suozzi. Despite Suozzi's tough talk, many voters still view Spitzer as the reform candidate, primarily based on the high-profile lawsuits he filed against everyone from Wall Street firms to record companies. But Suozzi argues that the one entity Spitzer has given a free pass to is the same one that most affects voters.

"If New York State was a Wall Street company, Eliot Spitzer would have indicted it already," argued Suozzi. "But he hasn't because he is sitting on the Board of Directors, and has been for the last seven-and-a-half years."

Suozzi told the crowd that the very reason Spitzer has earned the support of so many of his colleagues in Albany is because they know it will be good for their jobs.

"If he is going to change Albany, why are they supporting him?" Jefferson Chase of Woodside left Monday's meeting impressed with Suozzi's performance. He was especially pleased with Suozzi's tough talk on transportation.

"He's the best thing I can think of right now," said Chase. "He would definitely be better than Spitzer."

Unfortunately, Chase's support isn't going to help Suozzi in September - Chase is a registered Republican. Suozzi knows he will need a big turnout in the primary to defeat Spitzer, and asked attendees Monday night to pledge to get him 25 votes each, and not to expect that other people would turn up to vote for him. As Suozzi noted, of the 5.5 million Democrats statewide, only about 700,000 actually vote in the primary.

"If 700,000 people vote, I lose. If 1 million people vote, maybe I have a chance. If 1.2 million people vote, I win this thing."

http://tomsuozzi.com/news/ql-072006/