Why Garodnick should aim higher
Re: Story, “Garodnick’s $1.M campaign war chest,” T&V, Jan. 21
Your page one article notes a Daily News anonymous source:
Hon. Dan Garodnick, our City Council Member, “may be looking towards the comptroller or attorney general seat if they open up.”
Page 50 of this week’s New York Observer, however, quotes comptroller Tom DiNapoli:
“The secret is that being comptroller is the best job in state government.
“I don’t want people to know that so they don’t come after my job.
“There’s still more work to do here,” he continues.
Accordingly, that job doesn’t seem to be opening up.
This begs two questions:
(i) Who, including the days of Tammany Hall, was ever elected directly to statewide office from the New York City council?
(ii) If Hon. Dan Garodnick wants to make a statewide name for himself, he should challenge Governor Cuomo. If I was his strategist, I’d say strive for the gold.
Dan was preempted from the city comptroller’s primary and, subsequently, had to concede from the speaker’s race. He’s not winning statewide office.
And remember, he balked when considering running a primary against Brad Hoylman because he wanted to be close to home. Therefore, his considering statewide options seems quite a shift from the geographic priorities he set for himself fewer than four years later. After all, he’d have to spend more time in Albany in statewide office than members of the legislature do.
So if I were part of his brain trust, I’d have him make a statewide name for himself by running a gubernatorial primary against Andrew Cuomo.
And if his strategists don’t realize that runners up in Gubernatorial primaries are memorable while runners up in AG and comptroller primaries are not, then they’re not worth their commissions.
Billy Sternberg, ST
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