GOP Politics Makes For Strange Bedfellows
By Mike Connery on 06/28/2010 @ 04:25 PM
The pathetically desperate Albany-style relationship between Steve Levy and the Senate GOP has continued to fester.
A few weeks ago, Capitol Confidential reporter Jimmy Vielkind revealed that Tom Libous and Levy were conducting a backroom deal to salvage their sinking political fortunes.
Now, Liz Benjamin of The Capitol Report details how Levy is working closely with additional Senate Republicans – chief among them 34-year incumbent Ken LaValle– to promote what Levy describes as “economic development.”
Levy, a turncoat Democrat and practitioner of the politics of bigotry, is desperate to revive his political career after a disastrous attempt to capture the GOP gubernatorial nomination. His only asset is $4 million leftover from his failed bid.
Libous, chair of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, finds himself the head of a cash-starved organization that is a shadow of its former self. The Capitol reported earlier this year that the SRCC had just under $1 million on hand at the end of January. That was less than a fifth of what it had on hand at the same point in the 2008 cycle when the GOP lost 3 seats.
LaValle, who has been in the Senate since 1976, finds himself in a battle for his political life out on Long Island. He is facing a serious challenge from formidable Democrat challenger Regina Calcaterra, a proponent of government reform and fiscal responsibility who has successfully represented the pension funds of police, firefighters, and teachers, and strengthened the enforcement of labor laws, as a corporate fraud lawyer.
With no party to call home, it is clear that Levy wants to buy his way into the good graces of a GOP that already rejected him on the merits. The desperate GOP, meanwhile, is willing to look the other way at Levy’s hate-mongering, ideological flip-flops, and even their own conference’s rejection of Levy in order to inject some life into a Senate GOP that looks DOA.
Benjamin summed it up best: “The point here really isn’t what the party-switching county executive is calling for, but rather that he’s continuing to stand with the Republicans even after their county leaders rejected his effort to run on their line for governor.”
Levy has refused to endorse GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio. Levy has also refused to rule out a third party bid for governor. Despite this, Senate Republicans –from the top of the SRCC leadership in Albany down to the endangered 34-year incumbent on Long Island – look the other way in a desperate bid to grab whatever cash they can get a hold of.
Maybe one day the Senate GOP will define “economic development” in jobs and growth for New Yorkers, and stop measuring it in the amount of dirty campaign cash they can convince Steve Levy to shower them with.
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