Rochester City News - Credit Tom Suozzi with Being Tough; Spitzer Wooing Upstate?
Rochester City News - Credit Tom Suozzi with Being Tough; Spitzer Wooing Upstate?
Despite a lag in the polls that would send lesser politicians off to spend more time with their family, Suozzi says he's in the governor's race for the duration.
At an event in Rochester last week to unveil his economic platform, Suozzi said he's hoping his outsider mantle will propel him to victory in the September Democratic primary.
Here's how Suozzi says it'll work. The polls have Spitzer leading by an insurmountable 60-some percentage points. But most of them survey likely primary voters, the party's core members. Those are the same people --- "insiders," Suozzi likes to call them --- who've already anointed Eliot Spitzer governor. But only about 12 to 14 percent of eligible voters --- that partisan core --- usually vote in primaries, Suozzi contends. He hopes to "dramatically increase" that number with his populist message.
That begins with his economic plan. The plan contains some detail and tends to favor easing regulations on businesses rather than injecting massive public investments into targeted sectors, as Spitzer has advocated. (See "Wooing Upstate," March 8.)
Like Spitzer, however, Suozzi is advocating a regional approach to economic growth, and he says if he's elected, he'll have a series of regional meetings to let communities set their own growth agendas.
"It's been a top-down approach," he says. "It's been a scattershot approach. You have to have a long-term vision."
At least some in the crowd liked what they heard. The Rochester Business Alliance's CEO Sandy Parker stood to thank Suozzi publicly for outlining many of the same principles of the "Unshackle Upstate initiative that RBA has been instrumental in promoting. Parker stopped short of endorsing Suozzi, but she said the endorsement of the RBA's political-action committee will depend on how closely candidates'platforms line up with the "Unshackle Upstate" agenda.
"I found it a thoughtful speech," says Kent Gardner, CEO and chief economist at the non-partisan Center for Governmental Research.
"He's clearly considered the 'Unshackle Upstate' agenda and embraced most of it, evidencing an understanding of the issues, not just knee-jerk political agreement."
Of course, Suozzi has to win to implement his ideas, and at the rate the campaign's going, much of this is likely to remain in the realm of rhetoric. Suozzi came close to admitting that in an exchange with the Rochester Business Journal's Will Astor.
Astor was trying to get Suozzi to talk about what comes after the gubernatorial race, and after one fruitless attempt, Astor rephrase the question, describing Suozzi's defeat as "unthinkable."
"Well, it's not that unthinkable, is it?" Suozzi came back. There was a moment where everybody --- reporters, campaign staff, Suozzi himself--- froze. Then the candidate caught himself and added with a chuckle,"We're about truth-telling here."
http://tomsuozzi.com/news/rcn-060206/