Steve Levy formally announces GOP bid for NY Governor


http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suff ... -1.1819787


Originally published: March 19, 2010 10:14 AM
Updated: March 19, 2010 10:43 AM
By JAMES T. MADORE james.madore@newsday.com


ALBANY - Standing outside the massive Capitol building Friday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy renounced his lifelong membership in the Democratic Party and said he would seek the Republican nomination for governor this year.

"Here in Albany, an alarming lack of leadership and resolve has brought us to the brink of fiscal insolvency," Levy said. "I am the leader who can solve these problems, and that is why I am today announcing my candidacy as a Republican to become the next governor of New York State."

Levy, 50, of Bayport, was flanked by state Republican committee chairman Edward Cox and some county leaders. They have been wooing Levy for weeks after determining that the presumptive GOP nominee, Rick Lazio of Brightwaters, lacks the money and aggressiveness to compete against likely Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo.

LIVE VIDEO: Watch Steve Levy's announcement in Albany

Shortly before Levy's announcement, Lazio sent out a news release blasting Levy as a "liberal Democrat with a liberal record." The release noted Levy's endorsements of Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry and his voting record during three years in the state Assembly.

Levy, a maverick tax-fighting executive who has been far to the right of his party on immigration and union issues, has steadily maintained he is the most fiscally conservative of all those seeking the governor's office this year.

"I am the only candidate who has balanced a budget, who has cut spending and taxes, who has said no to special interests, and who has extracted concessions from public employee unions," Levy said Friday.

"We're going to change this state and we're going to change it for good. It starts today," he said.

In a year of record deficits and taxpayer unrest, he has convinced many New York Republicans that he has the message that most voters want to hear in November.

With Elizabeth Moore and Nomaan Merchant