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Spitzer dinner leaves Suozzi in outsider role

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

March 4, 2006

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seen after a fundraiser at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / February 15, 2006)

ITHACA - Although there were other Democratic candidates for election at the political convention here Friday night - Sen. Hillary Clinton, for instance - it was one man's party, and he had hundreds of fawning guests.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the favorite of Democratic leaders across the state to be their next governor, hosted the pre-dinner reception at the New York State Democratic Rural Conference. He co-hosted the dinner. And he was the marquis speaker, with Clinton relegated to a warm-up act.

Inside the Statler Hotel at Cornell University, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Spitzer's underdog opponent for the Democratic nomination, stood with the rest of the crowd, applauding politely during a 30-second ovation before the attorney general spoke. And he had to listen to the gushing praise from a roster of the state's top elected officials.

Clinton, who says she does not endorse candidates in primary races, all but did so for Spitzer: "I know that he's soon going to be making change on our behalf on an even greater scale on a bigger stage," she said.

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi: "Eliot Spitzer, the best attorney general in America."

Suozzi, who is running as an outsider against his party's wishes, walked into Spitzer's den - "Rural Dems Love Eliot," one poster read - with a smile on his face. He strolled over to Spitzer at the cocktail reception and joked that he jumped into the race last week to give the attorney general some excitement. At the dinner, he worked the crowd, receiving almost no attention from the speakers.

This rural conference is sort of a kick-off to the year's big election contests: governor, senator, attorney general.

The quandary for Suozzi is that he bills himself as an outsider, but doesn't want to shun political party events he has frequented in the past. This is his fourth trip to the Democratic Rural Conference, and though he has no support here, he said he was not uncomfortable.

"I've been coming to this thing for years," Suozzi said. "These people are very nice people."

Suozzi shook hands with Joe Cassidy, 62, a state committeeman from Alabama, a town in Genesee County, and they chatted.

"Tom Suozzi, I'll back him for anything except this race right now," Cassidy said a few minutes later. "Wrong race, wrong time. Everyone knows Eliot is going to win."