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Suozzi takes hit from home

Nassau legislator urges County Exec to pull out of governor's race, saying it hurts his constituents.

BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD | Newsday Staff Writer

May 10, 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)

With Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi's campaign for governor struggling for momentum, a county legislator from his own party Tuesday urged him to drop out of the race, throwing her support to Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner.

Legis. Lisanne Altmann (D-Great Neck), who has clashed with Suozzi in the past, called a news conference to condemn his proposal to charge motorists for riding the Long Island Expressway during rush hour as detrimental to county residents.

"There is a moment in time when your run for governor is in opposition to what you're doing -- what you ought to be doing -- as Nassau County executive," Altmann said. "I think we've reached that place."

"The quarterback's got to come back to the team," she said.

The rebuke from within his home county comes amid a Suozzi campaign that often seems to be flailing. On Friday, his unplanned comments to reporters about the "congestion pricing" system sparked an outcry from Long Islanders and criticism from five Democratic legislators, including Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury).

Normally a crisp speaker, Suozzi in the past few weeks has appeared distracted, observers say. He has been ramping up attacks on Spitzer and other state officials and staging events to stay on the media radar.

Suozzi's campaign manager, Kimberly Devlin, said that during the same period, he has "been focused enough to deliver the most specific, ambitious and credible policy proposal ... his property tax cut plan."

Tuesday, he called for the ouster of the state's top legislators, a move that was derided by one of them, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).

Suozzi has tried hard to get Spitzer to engage him. Devlin responded to Altmann Tuesday by accusing Spitzer of refusing to debate, and instead "using yet another surrogate try to prevent a competitive race for governor." Spitzer has said he will debate Suozzi later in the year.

Altmann's call is not altogether surprising in that she is known as a maverick and took part in a failed coup to join with Republicans and lead the county legislature earlier this year.

"Lisanne is a font of great ideas," said a sarcastic Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the county Democratic committee and of Suozzi's campaign. She "has not been the quintessential team player from day one," he said.

Altmann, who called Spitzer "clearly the better candidate," is the second Democratic Nassau lawmaker to back the state attorney general, after Craig Johnson of Port Washington.

Last week, in another attempt to show that Suozzi's campaign is at odds with his county duties, Altmann and Johnson wrote him a letter protesting his support for budget vetoes by Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, that could cost Nassau $30 million in Medicaid funding.

"Suozzi should not be running for governor," Johnson said Tuesday. "The county has suffered."

While Suozzi was attacked by Democrats, Spitzer won praise from a key Republican. Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, said to have been tacitly backing Spitzer, introduced him as the state's next governor at a fundraiser in Brooklyn on Sunday, D'Amato's spokeswoman said.