Strategists on both sides of next year’s crucial state Senate elections have been assessing how much Republican Rudy Giuliani could help Long Island GOP candidates if he wins the presidential nomination — and whether Democrat Eliot Spitzer as incumbent governor could hurt Democratic candidates.
In Albany on Friday, Giuliani operatives filed the papers to qualify him for the Feb. 5 presidential primary in New York. State and Nassau Republican chairman Joseph Mondello, who was on hand, said: “I’m usually not that big a believer in coattails, but if we have Rudy Giuliani running... it helps every Republican Senator across the board.
Not to have him would not be good for any of us — or any of our candidates.”
As for his arch-foe Spitzer, Mondello quipped: “I think he will continue to partner with us — and will continue to be the issue.”
In one Nassau race, Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) appears headed for a...
Dan Janison
... challenge from Democratic Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale). Mondello on Friday called Mejias “a hard worker” on the campaign trail who might prove “very very difficult” and “very very tough.”
Democrats express optimism about the potential effect of their own presidential candidates. And Spitzer, whose approval numbers keep sinking, will be off the ballot in 2008 — though he faces hard budget choices soon. The GOP Senate majority will argue it must survive as a check on Spitzer’s power; a Democratic strategist counters that Albany’s divided partisan Legislature has proven too dysfunctional.