Why NY's Conservatives Take Paladino Seriously
Many are looking at the recent Tea Party victories in states like Delaware and seeing the emergence of aggressive social conservative candidates. But the emergence of the Tea Party is more complex than this. Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino's candidacy, for example, stemmed from frustration with the New York GOP establishment, which for decades has existed for the enrichment of its leaders.
Look no further than one of the New York Republican Party's godfathers, Former Senator Alfonse D'Amato. John Fund reports in the Wall Street Journal that, because of his close ties to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, it is widely believed that D'Amato worked "behind the scenes to make sure that no one, not even (former Gov. George) Pataki, challenged Ms. Gillibrand." Fund writes that many Republicans suspect he then handpicked Bruce Blakeman as a "paper candidate" to purposely lose against Gillibrand, but Blakeman ended up losing last week's primary to Joe DioGuardi in a revolt by Republican voters against the establishment's candidate.
Rick Lazio was simply another candidate, handpicked by New York's conservative establishment to run as a sacrificial lamb. Republican leaders liked him because he would be the least offensive to Democrat Andrew Cuomo, whose election to governor they viewed as inevitable. New York's GOP leadership, Mr. Fund writes, is more of an "insider commercial party," whose members don't wish to offend the next Governor of New York and risk losing "the state's business -- whether bond sales, construction contracts or rigged development deals." These Republican leaders jettisoned Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's attempt to run for governor as a fiscal conservative, perhaps out of fear that he might provide a serious challenge to Cuomo. Even after the primary, the state's establishment refuses to give up. New York Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long, who did his part to ensure that Lazio won his spot on the ballot as a nominee of the Conservative Party, is still pushing Lazio to continue campaigning as a third party candidate. He has insisted that Lazio should be allowed to participate in any debates that the gubernatorial candidates have, and wants Lazio to run a robust campaign. In an election which is getting very close, a third party challenge by Mr. Lazio could hand the election to Andrew Cuomo; showing that members of the establishment such as Michael Long have an outside agenda which is inconsistent with the conservative philosophies that they espouse.
When finally given a voice, New York's Republican voters spoke with their ballots and overwhelmingly nominated Carl Paladino as the nominee. Mr. Paladino's nomination had little to do with the mainstream narrative of Tea Partiers seeking ideologically purer candidates; indeed, he supports same-sex civil unions while Lazio does not. Instead, voters simply sought a chance to stand up to the establishment which has disregarded the interests of their party and their state for too long.