April 1, 2011
Jon Lentz
A battle is looming in Erie County this fall, as Democrats aim to knock Republican County Executive Chris Collins out of office and neutralize a possible threat to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2014.
In Putnam, voters will head back to the polls a year after their last county executive-elect, then-state Sen. Vincent Leibell, failed to take office as part of his corruption plea deal.
And in Suffolk County, the race for county executive has been upended by Steve Levy’s surprise announcement that he would not be running for re-election.
The three races are among the 10 in New York where candidates will be vying for the job of county executive in an otherwise lackluster year at the polls. The other counties with executive races are Albany, Broome, Dutchess, Monroe, Oneida, Onondaga and Ulster counties.
The local races are also something of a political bellwether, showing which way the state’s political winds are blowing ahead of statewide elections. In recent years, with Rob Astorino’s victory in Westchester and Ed Mangano’s win in Nassau, the trend has been decidedly in favor of Republicans.
Those victories in 2009, along with Levy’s defection, put Republicans in 14 of the 17 elected county executive seats in the state. A retirement and the temporary appointment of an independent in Putnam lowered the Republicans’ ranks to 13, while only three Democrats serve as county executives.
State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said an emphasis on fiscal conservatism propelled his party’s success in the wake of the worst recession in decades, and he predicted the trend would continue this fall. He argued that the county executive gains did not go unnoticed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“He stole our Republican clothes and campaigned as Republican would, as a real fiscal conservative, because of those ’09 elections,” Cox said. “The result is we now have a real focus on doing the fiscally responsible thing in Albany.”
State Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs agreed that his party suffered as a result of the economic downturn, but argued that Republicans had squandered their advantage with poor leadership in places like Nassau, where the state stepped in to prevent the county from slipping into bankruptcy.
“Politics is very much described as a pendulum,” Jacobs said. “It swings back and forth, and it’s swinging back our way, and I’m expecting better results in the 2011 cycle most certainly than we saw in 2009.”
In Erie County, Chris Collins, a Republican who also weighed a run for governor, is expected to face a challenge from Mark Poloncarz, the county comptroller who has repeatedly clashed with Collins.
Nick Langworthy, chairman of the Erie County Republicans, said Collins had successfully injected business values into county government and held the county to “virtually zero percent growth in spending” while keeping tax increases in check.
“The public is very much with him,” Langworthy said. “It would be very smart to look at Chris Collins as someone who could be a statewide candidate down the road, but that’s down the road. He’s really focused on what’s going on in Erie County today.”
Democrats have an advantage in voter registration in the county, but they also say that Collins has been weakened after making controversial statements comparing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to the Antichrist and Hitler.
Poloncarz also argued that Collins ignores other branches of government, resists following state and federal guidelines, has raised taxes and cut services.
“I’ve said all along that the person who would be responsible for taking down Chris Collins would be Chris Collins,” Poloncarz said. “In some ways, he’s proved me correct by not only his statements in the gubernatorial election last year, but his actions as county executive in which he’s proven that he has to run it in a dictatorial fashion.”
Collins was not available for comment.
The Suffolk County race will also be closely watched after taking a surprising turn with Levy’s announcement. Democrats expect Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone to put together a strong campaign, while his potential opponents include County Treasurer Angie Carpenter and County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, Jr.
In Putnam, Leibell’s shocking downfall led to the post being filled by Paul Eldridge, an independent who has said he will not run in the fall special election. Mary Ellen Odell, a Republican county legislator who lost to Leibell in 2010 with 39 percent of the vote, plans to run for the second year in a row.
In March, Republican Assembly Member Marcus Molinaro announced that he would run to be the next Dutchess County executive. Longtime incumbent William Steinhaus said that he would step down at the end of the year.
“Being able to lead Dutchess County, a place that I’ve called home for almost every year of my life, is just an opportunity that I did not want to let pass,” said Molinaro, the only announced candidate so far.
Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala plans to join the Cuomo administration this spring as commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Deputy County Executive Pat Brennan, who is poised to fill the seat temporarily, has not stated whether he would run to stay in office.