Nassau DA Rice's 'listening tour' hints at plans

An upstate tour that will take Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice to 15 counties in five days provides one of the strongest indications yet that she plans to run for state attorney general.

Rice, a Democrat, will begin what's being billed as a "listening tour" in Albany Saturday and Sunday at the annual conference of the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, her principal political spokesman, Eric Phillips, said Thursday. Rice will not address the conference.

Rice has no plans to announce a candidacy as she travels upstate early next week through various counties on her itinerary, including Onondaga, Franklin, Tompkins and St. Lawrence, Phillips said.

"The reason for the tour is to listen and talk about common problems our communities share, from heroin proliferation and gang violence to the need for ethical reform in Albany and financial reform on Wall Street," he said.

Rice will meet with county Democratic Party officials, local activists, small-business owners, law enforcement members, community leaders and "hopefully a lot of regular people," Phillips said.

By mid-January, Rice had raised $1.4 million over a 45-day period, bringing her political war chest to $2.4 million and leading other potential attorney general candidates.

During her campaign last fall for her second four-year term as district attorney, Rice conspicuously did not promise to serve out the term and said she would consider all opportunities that came her way.

And soon after Rice won, Phillips left his position as a spokesman for the district attorney's office to head her political committee's speech-writing, media outreach and policy departments.

In December, several political experts said Rice would be a strong attorney general candidate, because of her record as a prosecutor and the diversity she would bring to the ticket as a woman. If she runs and wins, Rice would be New York's first female attorney general.

Complicating Rice's potential run is the fact that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, has not announced his plans. There has been widespread speculation he intends to run for governor, but he could just seek re-election.

Phillips said Rice will still be working during her listening tour, keeping in contact with her office 24 hours a day.

Rice also plans to visit Hamilton, Essex, Jefferson, Lewis, Cortland, Chemung, Steuben, Monroe, Erie and Niagara counties.