Silver Staves Off Challenge; Connor Is Out

The Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, in an impressive display of strength that will act as warning to others who may be tempted to challenge his 14-year reign as one of the Legislature’s leaders, dispatched two much younger opponents in yesterday’s primary election.Another veteran Albany lawmaker, Martin Connor, was not as fortunate. His 30-year career in the Senate was toppled by a man less than half his age, Daniel Squadron, who before last night’s victory was best known as a former employee of Senator Schumer.Mr. Silver, 64, who more than any other politician in Albany has come to symbolize the entrenching of incumbency, won his 17th term with 68% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. The two challengers, Paul Newell and Luke Henry, received 23% and 9%, respectively.The 64th Assembly District covers parts of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Battery Park City, and the financial district.In the 25th District state Senate race, Mr. Squadron, 28, defeated Mr. Connor by 54% to 46%, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Squadron will replace Mr. Connor in a district representing parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights.Another Democratic Senate incumbent, Kevin Parker, won 49% of the vote, easily defeating two term-limited City Council members, Simcha Felder (37%) and Kendall Stewart (14%). Mr. Felder was endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg.In the congressional race to succeed Rep. Vito Fossella, who declined to seek re-election after he was arrested for drunken driving and the subsequent disclosure that he fathered a child out of wedlock, Democrats picked Council Member Michael McMahon, while Republicans nominated a former assemblyman and hot dog entrepreneur, Robert Straniere.The two will face off in November for the Staten Island and Brooklyn seat in a contest that could leave Democrats in complete control of New York’s congressional delegation for the first time.Political observers had expected Mr. Silver’s race to be a blowout, given the incumbent’s vast advantage in resources — both from his own $3 million war chest and from labor unions and other political groups that campaigned for him — and name recognition. The speaker also has amassed a seemingly endless supply of chits by lavishing on his district and city millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending each year.While the speaker’s approval rating has long hovered between 20% and 30%, he has enjoyed the enthusiastic backing of large interest groups, such as the United Federation of Teachers, which have a great influence in elections with small turnouts. After facing an attempted coup in 2000, Mr. Silver has cultivated loyalty among members of his Assembly conference.Mr. Silver, a trial lawyer who is of counsel at the personal injury law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, was viewed as such an impregnable force that nobody within his party had challenged him since 1986. As speaker, he has exercised dominion over the legislative process since 1994.However, he faced an onslaught of terrible press in the weeks leading up to the primary. Mr. Silver failed to get the endorsement of three major daily city newspapers, one of which, the New York Post, illustrated a cover story about Governor Paterson’s description of lawmakers as “bloodsuckers” with a doctored photo of Mr. Silver in a vampire costume, fangs and all.His toughest opponent, Mr. Newell, a 33-year-old AIDS awareness organizer, sought to portray Mr. Silver as an unaccountable politician out-of-touch with a district whose demographics have transformed since Mr. Silver was first elected in 1976 from an Orthodox Jewish base.After the resignation of Governor Spitzer and the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, some political observers wondered whether Mr. Silver’s time was up as well.Critics of the speaker’s thought Mr. Silver was more vulnerable this year after the Bloomberg administration held him responsible for killing the mayor’s congestion pricing plan. That the mayor’s legislation never came to the floor was seen by Mr. Silver’s critics as another example of his secretive style of leadership.Speaking from the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers in Lower Manhattan, where more than 200 supporters of the speaker feasted on sushi and pepper steak, Mr. Silver said he had triumphed over the press.“This campaign was about real people with real needs. Not about tabloid headlines,” he said.Mr. Silver spent $400,000 — only a small fraction of his campaign funds — but more than double what his opponents spent combined. He hired a political consulting firm, blanketed neighborhoods with leaflets, and sought to curry favor in his district by fast-tracking legislation tightening rent regulations.He was also aided by having two opponents, making it easier for him to split the opposition vote.Mr. Squadron, the 28-year-old son of Howard Squadron, who was one of the city’s most powerful lawyers of his generation and leading advocate of American Jewish causes, will take the seat that Mr. Connor has occupied since 1978.Mr. Connor, the state Senate’s longest-serving Democrat, served as minority leader between 1995 and 2002 and was ousted by Mr. Paterson in a coup. An election lawyer, he is best known in Albany for his endless institutional knowledge of Albany’s political process.Mr. Squadron, a former special assistant to Mr. Schumer — with whom he co-authored a book, “Positively American” — campaigned as a progressive reformer, relying heavily on his association with the senator. He also managed to secure a number of other important endorsements, including from Mr. Bloomberg and the Working Families Party, a labor-backed group that provided ground-troops for his campaign. By the end of the campaign, his posters were a ubiquitous presence in his district, many appearing illegally on public property.Mr. Squadron attacked Mr. Connor for buying two Brooklyn Heights apartments in 1990s for a suspiciously low amount and drew attention to tax liens that the IRS had filed against him. Mr. Connor, in turn, tried to portray Mr. Squadron, a Yale graduate with a trust fund, as a spoiled rich kid.

Silver Staves Off Challenge; Connor Is Out

Silver Staves Off Challenge; Connor Is Out

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