Suozzi Turns to New Campaign Manger To Gain Ground Before Primary
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
With less than two months to go before the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Thomas Suozzi is pinning his hopes on a veteran political operative from the Bronx to build much-needed momentum against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Trailing in one recent poll by more than 60 percentage points and raising money at less than half the pace of Mr. Spitzer, the Nassau County executive yesterday abruptly announced that Paul Rivera would replace Kimberly Devlin as campaign manager. Ms. Devlin, a longtime close ally who helped Mr. Suozzi in his come-from-behind county executive victory in 2001, will be working for the campaign as a paid consultant.
Mr. Rivera joined the Suozzi camp three months ago as a strategist and has been trying to boost its field operations, which has been seen as a weak point in the campaign.
“It happens. It’s a management change,” Mr. Suozzi told The New York Sun last evening at a campaign event in Queens.
Mr. Rivera, who is Puerto Rican, was a senior political adviser to Senator Kerry’s presidential campaign and was part of Carl McCall’s unsuccessful effort to unseat Governor Pataki in 2002. Between 1994 and 2000 he worked as a White House advance man, according to the Suozzi campaign. Mr. Rivera has been critical of the Democratic Party’s efforts to preserve support among Latino voters, warning that Democrats were allowing Republicans to peel away the demographic.
The challenge facing Mr. Rivera will be coming up with a last-minute strategy to peel voters away from a popular attorney general who has gained a national reputation as a prosecutor of white-collar crime.
At campaign events and speeches, Mr. Suozzi has portrayed Mr. Spitzer as an entrenched part of Albany’s establishment, citing as evidence the endorsements the attorney general has received from Albany leaders and from special interest groups.
The message has yet to resonate with voters, judging by Mr. Suozzi’s poll numbers. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed Mr. Spitzer beating Mr. Suozzi by 63 percentage points. Part of the problem for Mr. Suozzi is that many voters view Mr. Spitzer as a reform candidate because of his reputation as a crusader against Wall Street corruption, political observers say. But they say the Suozzi camp has also made strategic mistakes and has lacked focus at times.
The campaign spent $2.5 million on a television ad campaign that featured Mr. Suozzi telling viewers that he plans to shake up Albany. Some consultants to Mr. Suozzi were opposed to the ad, but Ms. Devlin strongly favored running it.
Critics of the ad said it was bland and failed to provide any contrast to Mr. Spitzer. The Spitzer campaign immediately went on air with a far more expansive and expensive campaign.
In recent weeks, the county executive has levied a host of attacks against Mr. Spitzer but few have seemed to stick. Most recently, Mr. Suozzi has alleged a conflict of interest in Mr. Spitzer’s role on the board of a Spitzer family trust.
The attacks on Mr. Spitzer have alienated some Democrats, including an aide to Senator Clinton, Howard Wolfson, who told the New York Post that Mr. Suozzi has “gone from being a mere nuisance to somebody who has really crossed the line in attacking a fellow Democrat in the way he has.”
Asked about Mr. Wolfson’s comments, Mr. Suozzi told the Sun: “I’m not going to be intimidated by statements like that.”
The chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, who is also the chairman of Mr. Suozzi’s campaign, said Ms. Devlin requested that she step down from the job.
Ms. Devlin and Mr. Rivera were unavailable for comment yesterday.
Mr. Spitzer is leading all gubernatorial candidates in fund-raising, having raised more than $10 million in the campaign filing period between January and July. He has $16.3 million cash on hand. Mr. Suozzi has $2.8 million on hand, having raised almost $4 million during the same period. Republican candidate John Faso has $1.4 million in the bank.
The only Republican in a statewide race who is competitive in fund-raising is attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro, who raised slightly more than Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo did during the six-month period. She took in $2.8 million compared with Cuomo’s $2.1 million, but more than $500,000 of that money originally came from her district attorney re-election account. Democrat Mark Green raised $700,000 since January.
