Empire Zone has a piece on Tom Suozzi's remaining funds: a whopping $560,190.76.

There's a lot of people running for office who could use a chunk of that, Tom. Time to rebuild some goodwill, perhaps?

So yesterday was the big, much-hyped debate between Eliot and Tom for the gubernatorial nomination. Expectations were high for Team Suozzi, considering that their expenditures to date of roughly six million dollars have actually pushed their candidate down into the single digits. I'm not really quite sure, cursed with excessive rationality as I am, what they thought would happen during this debate; perhaps Spitzer sodomizing a telegenic child on live television?

At what point does a campaign get more about salving the wounded ego of the candidate than about, say, winning? What tangible, realistic rationale for his candidacy can Tom offer today that would lay out a clear case for him, other than that ironclad belief he has in his own exceptional talents?

Tom Suozzi wants to be governor. Fine. The problem is simply that not very many people other than himself and perhaps his immediate family share that desire. At this point in the season, it seems that the Suozzi campaign is kept in being more by what I'd diagnose as a dearth of campaign staffers with the courage to tell the candidate the bad news than by any other factor. Somebody should step up to that disagreeable task sometime soon, as this stillborn campaign continues to go through what everyone realizes are the mere motions, before it degrades further from a Simpsons episode into the more Shakespearean depths that Suozzi seems determined to plumb. Unfortunately, Nassau is not the most promising location for King Lear, and there are no things more noble at stake than a sense of entitlement arising from a miscalculated sense of self.

You're not going to be governor, Tom, not this year. And if you go down this path much further, you're not going to be anything else, either.

There is no shame in losing; there is humiliation in being the last to acknowledge the writing on the wall. In the case of Tom Suozzi's lonely desire to be governor, that writing on the wall is flashing with all the subtlety of Times Square at midnight, and it says "It's over".

"Sir, what kind of future do you see for yourself in the Democratic Party after you get crushed by Eliot Spitzer in the September primary?"

Thus began my first conversation with Tom Suozzi, as opposed to any number of conversations about Tom Suozzi, yesterday afternoon on the Brooklyn Promenade (crawling with various candidates and causes, but that's another story).

Notably, he didn't answer my question, unless a sudden tightening of his broad smile was answer enough. I suspect that he does not have an answer to that one, and more's the pity. What followed was some interesting repartée, transcribed here with reasonable accuracy, the goal of which, on my part, was to get a firmer grasp on the man.

"I want to cut your taxes. What, don't you want your taxes cut?"

"You've never cut taxes in Nassau, what are you talking about doing things differently in Albany?"

"So what, you think Eliot's going to lower your taxes?"

"What I don't understand, Mr. Suozzi, is this: there are so many things you could do. You have so much talent, so much going for you. You're young, smart, competent and handsome. You could run for the Senate one day. I have prayed that you would take on Peter King, because you'd win that race, in a landslide, and we need that seat. What are you thinking going into this race, where everybody has already made up their minds?"

Photo courtesy of BuffaloPundit.

This is so not news : Spitzer is nominated by state Democrats as their 'heir to the gubernatorial throne' :

[via Dems choose Spitzer to run for governor]

Buffalo - New York state Democrats overwhelmingly chose Eliot Spitzer as their candidate for governor yesterday in a bid to take back control of state government as Republicans head into their own nominating convention battling for control of their party.

Spitzer, the state attorney general who has won national recognition for fighting corporation corruption, laced his acceptance with promises of fixing upstate and Albany's woes.

"In cities and suburbs across the state and right here in Erie County, there are families drowning in property taxes so high that with each passing day they see the middle-class lifestyle they fought so hard for slip further and further away," Spitzer said. "Most importantly, day one is when we realize that we're all in this together, and that in this journey, it will not be upstate versus downstate, urban versus rural, business versus labor, Republicans versus Democrats."

BTW, I actually like Spitzer. A lot. But given my job is to not to bend over and give in to party politics, I have to note that Spitzer's speech took more than a note, nay! dare I say a whole chapter, from the Suozzi campaign :

Spitzer, in his speech, referenced Pataki's 12 years in power without using his name. He is looking to gain from voters' growing discontent with state government.

"No more pay-to-play politics, where you do business with a politician one day and make a campaign contribution the next," Spitzer said. "No more lifetime appointments to the state Legislature."

"And in the years to come, the only distinction they'll be remembered for is the fact that nobody has ever done so much for so few who need so little."

Tsk. Tsk. Given his vast knowledge of net neutrality, Mr. Spitzer should have treated those words as having a Creative Commons, Share-Alike license.

Heh.

The Q-Poll is out today, with the expected result: Eliot Spitzer continues to lead any rival, with support for any opponent – primary or general – not rising above 20%.

Tom Suozzi bumps up slightly in the poll, from 8% in January to 14% today. Suozzi also leads – though with a margin lower than Spitzer's by 20% - any contender from the other side, none of whom rises above 20% against either Democrat. The gap between this seeming 20% ceiling and the generic republican vote of about 30% illustrates the escalating weakness of the GOP in this election year.

New York State Democrats give State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer a 69 - 14 percent lead over Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi in a possible primary in the race for Governor, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 72 - 8 percent Spitzer lead over Suozzi in a January 19 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

Spitzer and Suozzi each have substantial leads over likely Republican contenders. Spitzer-Republican matchups show:

* 66 - 18 percent over Randy Daniels;
* 66 - 18 percent over William Weld;
* 66 - 18 percent over John Faso. Suozzi-Republican matchups show:
* 48 - 17 percent over Randy Daniels, with 29 percent undecided;
* 47 - 20 percent over William Weld, with 27 percent undecided;
* 47 - 19 percent over John Faso, with 27 percent undecided.

"Now that he's an official candidate, Thomas Suozzi has edged up a bit - but Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is still out of sight," said Maurice Carroll, Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

These poll numbers reflect two basic facts of political life: the overwhelming popularity of the Attorney General and the strength of Democrats in general in this state. If these numbers remain steady, as they have for the past year, the down-ballot effect will produce a Democratic landslide unlike any this state has seen since FDR was on the ballot.

The Politicker alerts the world to an upcoming announcement, this Saturday, from Tom Suozzi.

What, oh what will it be? Is this bumpersticker just a malicious accident?

The NY Post reports:

January 12, 2006 -- ALBANY — Republican leaders are secretly discussing endorsing Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi for governor — even as Suozzi plans to announce tomorrow that he'll challenge Eliot Spitzer for the Democratic nomination, The Post has learned.

Republican emissaries have already approached Suozzi about switching parties in order to enter the governor's race, party insiders said yesterday — and Suozzi himself confirmed it.

"I told them I was a Democrat," Suozzi said when asked about the offer.

Suozzi will announce formation of an "exploratory committee" to raise funds to run for governor against Attorney General Spitzer tomorrow. He repeatedly refused to say if he would consider remaining a Democrat while still running for governor on the Republican line.

That's the scenario influential GOP activists want to pursue.

"Suozzi is a proven vote-getter with Democrats and Republicans in the suburbs, and he could be a real threat to Spitzer running as a Democrat on the Republican ticket," said a top GOP insider.

Former state GOP Executive Director Brendan Quinn said of a possible Suozzi candidacy, "An Italian Catholic Democrat from Nassau County would have real appeal to suburban voters, who are typically Republican."

True, the crop on the other side – Weld and the weakly wannabes – doesn't look too promising. But really, guys, can't you at least put up a fight? Or is Spitzer paranoia really that widespread?

I had the chance to see in action Suozzo at the last Drum Major Institute's Marketplace of Ideas panel on environmental justice. I have to saw in him and I really liked his straight shooting talk.

It's not only that he's fighting "the man" in environmental issues, it's that Suozzi's renegade stance toward the New York State Democratic Party's "king making" machine just calls the rebel in me :

[via Fix Albany - About Tom Suozzi]:

Mr. Suozzi made history in 2001 when he overcame conventional wisdom and defeated his Republican opponent by a margin of nearly two to one in a County with more registered Republicans than any county in New York State. He is the first Democratic County Executive in over thirty years, and only the second in Nassau's history. He is also the first Democratic County Executive with a Democratic Legislature since 1917. Prior to his astonishing win which the Washington Post characterized as a "landslide victory" in the general election, Mr. Suozzi --regarded by many as the underdog-- upset his opponent to gain the Democratic nomination for County Executive.

Yeah, I know, Steve Gilliard sent him a blogger's bitch-slapping just last month.
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