Tag: Maureen O’Connell

(x-posted from the albany project)

It’s official. As expected, Nassau county dems nominated County Legislator Craig Johnson to run against County Clerk, Maureen O’Connell in the Feb 6th special election to replace new state Homeland Security chief Michael Balboni.

As usual, Newsday is all over it.

NY Dems nominate county legislator Johnson for Senate

Craig Johnson, a popular county legislator, was nominated Monday to run for a key state Senate seat being left vacant by Michael Balboni’s departure to Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration as chief of homeland security.

…

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democrats, said Johnson comes to the table with a solid record and base of supporters.

“He knows how to campaign, voters are used to voting for him and he has an excellent record in the Legislature,” Jacobs said.

Johnson was elected to the 11th Legislative District in a special election in 2000 after the death of the former legislator, Barbara Johnson, his mother.

He was re-elected to the post in 2001 and 2003. In 2005, he received 73 percent of the votes, Jacobs said.

This one is gonna be a dogfight and there’s less than month for these campaigns and the parties to make their case. The stakes are HUGE, especially for the GOP, and their new party chair who has deep roots in the district and will likely pull out all the stops to not only protect the seat, but his own home turf.

As for the Dems, the shakeup at the DSCC probably isn’t so well timed given the gravity of the race. Then again, not like they’ve been particularly effective as of late anyway. This race is going to be very expensive and the money advantage definitely tilts towards the GOP at this moment though the voter registration trends tilt towards the Dems. (the trend from Republican to Democrat has been rather steep and pretty quick)

It’s a very expensive and potentially vicious four week sprint to a conclusion that could have massive implications for the future of the entire Republican party in the state of New York.

Let the dogfight begin!

(So the election is one month from today. I think this one is going to consume a lot of my interest. – promoted by DavidNYC)

Adapted from a post at the albany project

According to Newsday, the special election to replace outgoing state Senator Michael Balboni will take place on Feb 6th. The GOP has chosen Nassau County Clerk and former Assemby Member Maureen O’Connell and the dems will choose a candidate on Monday.

It’s interesting to me that Tom DiNapoli, who was often mentioned as being the candidate with the right of first refusal in this race, isn’t being mentioned in media reports at all anymore. I guess he really does want to be Comptroller. As for the other dem hopefuls, Newsday lists them thusly:

Jacobs said he will head a screening committee that Saturday will interview four Democrats seeking the party’s nomination: legislators Roger Corbin of Westbury and Craig Johnson of Port Washington; East Williston activist Matthew Cuomo, nephew of former Gov. Mario Cuomo and cousin of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; and North Hempstead Town Clerk Michelle Schimel.

The screening committee will submit its recommendation to the executive committee Monday night, Jacobs said.

Everything I’ve heard in the past two weeks points to Nassau County legislator Craig Johnson as being the new favorite. Johnson seems to be a pretty progressive candidate. (here is his  official site and campaign site)

Over at the albany project, guest blogger and all around bad ass Scott in NJ has some more relevant details about the state of the players and district.

Republicans have nominated Nassau County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, who reportedly has the Independence and Conservative lines as well.  The Democrats will pick their candidate on Monday; Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson is the front-runner for that nomination.  Johnson has run on the WFP line in the past and he will probably get row E against O’Connell.  Insiders suggest that the parties could spend up to $4 million on the race.

As of December, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee had $580,490.96 on hand; the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee had $143,166.31.  O’Connell can expect substantial support from the Nassau County Republican Committee, which has $1,359,471.43 on hand.  The County Democrats spent all of their cash on the 2006 campaign.

Tom Suozzi had $560,190.76 left over after his primary run, but he might have spread some of that money out among ’06 general election candidates.  FWIW, Johnson supported Spitzer over Suozzi in ’06.  Spitzer-Paterson 2006 still had $5,529,993.05 in the coffers after the general election.

Democrats hold a 38-35 registration edge in the district.

Looks like we’re gettin’ it on a month from today. As soon as the dems pick their candidate we’ll be covering that as well.