Tuesday, September 28, 2010
My biggest disappointment in the NY gubernatorial race has got to be that Rick Lazio has withdrawn as the Conservative Party candidate. We had a shot at eliminating the ballot line there-- no way Ricky could have drawn the requisite 50,000 votes-- but it was not to be. My solace in this is the way he withdrew. Under New York Election Law a party can only replace a candidate if he dies, moves out of state, or is nominated for a judgeship. I don't doubt for a moment that Ed Cox thought about Plan A-- his father-in-law would have put it on the table-- but I guess calmer heads prevailed. Running Lazio out of Brightwaters would have received discussion too, but in the end it was the judgeship option that seemed the simplest. For a lot of people that would seem like a fair consolation prize, but Lazio didn't get that nice house on South Windsor by working for the government. The private sector has been very good to him. The Republican nod for a Supreme Court seat in Suffolk County, while not quite a mortal lock, would have likely meant that Judge Lazio would be commuting to Riverhead for the next 14 years. That nomination has value to someone, and it would have been a shame to waste it on a guy who doesn't want it. Being governor is one thing, but it seems unlikely that a guy who's been pulling down the long dollars would want to spend his peak earning years presiding over cases about car one hitting car two. Confronted with this dilemma (can't kill him, won't move, hates Riverhead) the party has nominated him for a judgeship in the Bronx.
// posted by Bill @ 10:20 AM 
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