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Gubernatorial hopeful visits Queens

Last week, the Queens Republican Party held its annual holiday party at the Reception House in Flushing. In attendance, in addition to State GOP Chair Ed Cox, Queens’ elected Republican delegation, and District Attorney Richard A. Brown, was Chris Collins. Now, you might be wondering Chris who?

Chris Collins is the Erie County Executive, not to be confused with the football announcer Chris Collingsworth. He is mulling a run for governor and says he will make his official decision within the next six weeks.

Erie County is home to Buffalo, the second largest city in the state. Collins’ speech at the holiday party invoked comparisons to Rudy Giuliani, taking a seemingly ungovernable city and turning it around, enforcing fiscal responsibility and challenging the status quo.

Collins has also hired a consulting firm with ties to the former mayor, which has been credited with Republican Rob Astorino’s victory in the race for Westchester County Executive.

As Queens is a long way from Buffalo, Collins is clearly serious about lining up support for his run. According to the election law, party designations for statewide office are made by the party’s state committee at a meeting in May. The votes of state committee members are weighted according to votes cast for the party’s candidate for governor in the last election.

Thanks to Queens’ size, with more registered voters than 17 states, the votes of Queens’ state committee members are weighted heavily and will be a large factor in determining who gets the party’s nod for governor.

Meanwhile, former Congressmember Rick Lazio has officially announced he’s running for governor and has picked up the endorsements of six Republican county chairs, from his native Suffolk plus five upstate.

This situation is similar to 2006, where both John Faso and Bill Weld were seeking the GOP’s line for governor. I expect that, as then, the party will eventually coalesce around a consensus candidate and avoid a primary so the party’s candidate could focus on their general election opponent.

Looking ahead to the general election, I was talking to a political consultant the other day who made a good case against the conventional wisdom – that the Obama administration will offer Governor David A. Paterson a post like an ambassadorship or czar of something to ease the way for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Instead, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Cuomo takes a pass. He might not want to be seen as pushing out Paterson, whose media campaign has sought to portray him as a sympathetic and inspirational figure. In addition, in taking on Paterson, Cuomo might antagonize constituencies he may want to appeal to in future races.

After all, Cuomo is a relatively young guy, and the Attorney General post is a pretty decent launching pad to higher office, as it was for Eliot Spitzer. Especially if 2010 is shaping up to be a Republican year like 1994 (an overstatement perhaps), Cuomo might wait another four years to run for his dad’s old job. Cuomo’s plans aside, Queens voters should expect to hear a lot more about Chris Collins in the months to come.

 

Daniel Egers is Executive Director of the Queens County Republican Party, a Trustee of the Bayside Historical Society and President of the Friends of Oakland Lake, among other affiliations. The views expressed in this column are his own.