By William Lewis
During a recent interview with Mike Long, chairman of the state Conservative Party, he gave his views on various issues.
Pertaining to the race for governor this year, he thinks Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who has Conservative Party endorsement, has an uphill battle against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but it is not an impossible task to win.
Long does not think the Democratic primary against Cuomo with Zephyr Teachout will have much of an impact on the governor’s election results.
He thinks ending most stop-and-frisk police procedures has hurt police effectiveness.
As for the major issues in this year’s campaign, he indicated that we should encourage economic growth and lower taxes.
He would like to encourage more conservative Democrats to accept Conservative Party endorsement, but the problem is that there seems to be fewer conservative Democrats than, say, 30 years ago.
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party seems to dominate the party organization. It can be hoped that that can change in the future.
Long thinks Mayor Bill de Blasio should do more to back our city police force. He also believes de Blasio should shed his working relationship with the Rev. Al Sharpton. The mayor’s actions in giving prominence to Sharpton, who has a reputation for being anti-police, has hurt the morale of our police force in general.
In regards to the party primary process, Long wants to cut down the two primaries we have now to one primary. He would accept either June or September for the one primary. As we have it now, it is costly to have two primaries. We need only one primary.
Long considers the election of George Pataki and Dennis Vacco as governor and state attorney general the most important victories since he has been state Conservative Party chairman.
Long thinks the voters need to achieve a higher degree of interest in political elections. He mentioned that only 24 percent of registered voters voted in the mayor’s race last year. He believes that has to improve if the people are to have a say in what their city government does.
The state Conservative Party has been with us since 1962. Long has been chairman for more than 20 years. Most Republican candidates have Conservative Party endorsement.
The Conservative Party is unique to New York. No state has anything quite like it. It is a small political party but well-organized in New York’s 62 counties and important in political campaigns.
The state Conservative Party is now more than 50 years old. It has particularly grown upstate. Long has served the party as a strong leader as he moves it forward in the 21st century. Long is highly respected in political circles and among other party leaders.
Years ago, when the Conservative Party first started, there was hope that the party would spread to other states, but other conservative groups have formed. At some point conservative groups will possibly merge and work together as many liberal groups have done.
It will be interesting to see what percentage of the total state vote the Conservative Party gets this year in terms of where their votes are and how many Conservative votes each candidate gets.
It will be of interest to see how the state Conservative Party does in the presidential election in 2016.
