Being John Faso cannot be easy.
Here's a true Republican Party loyalist from Columbia County who by all rights should have had the nomination for state comptroller in 1994, but was forced off the ticket in a deal between the GOP and Conservative leadership.
Herb London, who got the comptroller's nomination that year, quickly became a low priority for those same leaders. He proceeded to mount a miserable candidacy and lose to Democrat H. Carl McCall in what was otherwise a good year for Republican candidates.
Cut to 2002. Faso, after serving as Assembly minority leader, gets the nomination for comptroller in and, with the position now vacated by gubernatorial candidate McCall, Faso almost makes it.
He pulls up just short of Democrat Alan Hevesi on Election Day.
Four years later Hevesi is looking like a cinch for re-election when lightning strikes. He falls into scandal, its impact assisted by a suddenly-animated state Ethics Commission and a suddenly-relevant Gov. George Pataki.
Where's Faso when this happens? Unfortunately for him, he's out running for what turns out to be the wrong job, governor, against a seemingly unstoppable foe.
So while Faso trails Eliot Spitzer in all polls, comptroller nominee Chris Callaghan -- a complete unknown from the Saratoga GOP -- finds himself struggling to surpass the wounded Hevesi.
Does anyone believe that if Faso were the comptroller candidate this time, he wouldn't be way ahead by now, finally nailing down the job he sought to begin with, persuading voters on the plain logic that it might be a good idea to have a Republican comptroller as watchdog on a Democratic administration?
Being John Faso cannot be easy.
Comments (1)
Except Faso probably would have not exposed Hevesi the way Callaghan did so he wouldn't get the benfit of Hevesi's freefall. Faso is a smart but starcrossed candidate.