Newsday - Tom Suozzi Will Hang In There Till The End

Newsday - Tom Suozzi Will Hang In There Till The End

Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor.

As a candidate for governor, I have never worked harder in my life. I have traveled all over the state, listening to people's problems while balancing my responsibilities in Nassau and my family life.

Despite my hard work, I am trailing badly in the polls. My multimillionaire opponent, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, has raised $37 million in campaign funds. He has the backing of every Democratic Party boss, every single Albany lobbyist, lawyer and insider.

So it seems reasonable to ask, as many have, "Hey, Suozzi, why don't you quit?" Well, I can't, and I won't.

Why? Because this campaign was never about "Suozzi." It's about New York; it's about bringing change to a broken political system mired in the mud of special interests.

As Nassau County executive and as mayor of Glen Cove before that, I have found that the biggest concern of the residents I serve has increasingly been our crushing property taxes. The reason our school and other property taxes are so high is that state government passes laws mandating spending without adequately funding or supporting local governments. It's not just on Long island, but throughout the state. New Yorkers pay the highest local taxes in America - 72 percent above the national average.

Our state wastes billions of dollars a year in Medicaid fraud and abuse and in other wasteful spending, while school taxes in suburbia escalate, and in the city a generation of children has been denied a quality education.

Our state passes or keeps arcane laws on the books as favors to trial lawyers, public employee unions or other special-interest groups even though those laws are strangling our economy.

Our people are really hurting, yet our state government is simply not accountable to the people. Despite these very real problems and their obvious causes, the political system in New York, as elsewhere, favors incumbents and insiders, and our elected officials are overwhelmingly re-elected year after year. I am running to take back our government from these insiders and make it work for everyday people again.

My candidacy has always been, win or lose, an effort to help make Nassau County better. I love being county executive. I work hard at it.

My political rivals have tried to cast my campaign in negative terms because I want to change their system. It's rigged - against candidates like me and against people like you. State government is controlled by a chosen few and by politically connected power brokers.

So I have become their enemy, the guy they want to stop. But I won't quit.

Though the polls may not show it, I am already "winning" the fight. My two-year battle to fight Medicaid fraud and restructure Medicaid funding has forced substantial state legislative change. More important, every statewide candidate, including my opponent, who ignored the problem for 7 1/2 years, now talks about Medi-caid reform.

My "Fix Albany" campaign already has been adopted in word, if not deed, by my opponent. He recently admitted that "Albany is broken" even though his office is there, and he has never gone after corrupt public officials.

My plan for property tax reduction has forced my opponent to start talking about property taxes and issue a "plan" that was widely panned by the press and editorial boards. If his "plan" were a Wall Street firm, he would have indicted it for fraud.

I am convinced that without my candidacy, these issues would not have been addressed. Without my candidacy, the governor's race would be an ordinary campaign based on political endorsements, not policy initiatives, a campaign of new commercials instead of new ideas, a campaign to coronate the next governor instead of to save New York State.

Either way, my constituents and fellow Long Islanders are winners. If I win the Democratic primary Sept. 12 and the general election in November, for the first time since Teddy Roosevelt (elected in 1898), we will have a governor from Long Island, someone who understands our problems and is truly committed to fixing them.

If I lose the primary, I will have brought to the forefront the very issues that will decide the fate and future of Long Island: property taxes and affordable housing.

We may not know who the next governor will be, but one thing is certain. The next governor of New York State will be forced to fix Albany, to lower property taxes, reshape Medi-caid finances, energize our economy, protect our environment, strengthen our schools and build affordable housing. And if he doesn't, we will hold him accountable.

If it's I, you know I will do it. If it's not, I will do well enough to be your voice to hold accountable anyone who has promised to get it done.

It's a win-win for Long Island. And as they say, "Hey, you never know."

http://tomsuozzi.com/news/ND_082306/