After the first round of voting at the New York Republican convention, this was the scene:
Nearly 60 percent of the GOP faithful gathered at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers voted to make Lazio their standard-bearer in the race against Democrat Andrew Cuomo in November. Levy, the Suffolk County executive favored by party Chairman Ed Cox, came in second with 28 percent of the vote.
Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, who has pledged to petition his way onto the ballot, got eight percent. Westchester businessman M. Meyers Mermel, a late entry into the race, received four percent.
A subsequent vote was held on the question of allowing Levy, who is still a Democrat, onto the Republican primary ballot. Levy failed:
The vote on a GOP primary for Levy: yes 42.6 percent, no 57 percent. Levy is done
Stick a fork in him. There is no way for Levy to make his way onto the Republican ballot now, as his Democratic registration necessitated a majority vote approval at the Republican convention to make that happen.
It’s always nice to see another party switcher fall flat on his face.
UPDATE: It’s also the end of the line for M. Myers Mermel, who’d just gotten into the race last week. Having abandoned a potentially-promising Lt. Gov. bid in order to finish deep in fourth place in the Governor balloting, he threw his backing to Lazio, and also chastised Paladino for his plans to try to petition onto the ballot.
If you are Steve Levy why bother doing this? I mean this now makes him a pariah in most, if not all, of the parties in NY. Even if he won he would have had the honor of being the guy who lost to Cuomo by 20 plus points.
He will continue to be the Suffolk executive for the remainder of his term. What happens after that?
More importantly, what is Cox’s next gambit?
Levy waited too long to jump into the race. He allowed Lazio to build up his support. You can’t switch parties a few months before the primary/convention and think you’re going to be welcomed with open arms by the rank and file when you’ve been a member of the opposition for an extended period of time. It’s too nakedly opportunistic. Outgoing Congressman Parker Griffith is a perfect example of this.
If he wanted a higher-profile race, why didn’t he switch to the Senate race, where he would do pretty good in the primary (and convention) and probably have the best shot at Gillibrand?