Conservative candidate ripped over tie to Green Party

For major-party candidates, ties to alternative parties can bring advantages or burdens.

Businessman Randy Altschuler seeks the GOP nomination against 1st Congressional District Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). He's endorsed by Suffolk's Conservatives. But he's also drawn fire from rivals for having once registered about a decade ago with the leftish Green Party.

Some of those who have ripped the past Altschuler- Green connection, including county GOP chairman John Jay LaValle, also back recently Democratic Suffolk Executive Steve Levy for governor.

Ironically, Levy himself had Green Party endorsements in his two successful runs for State Assembly.

In 2000, he drew 24,630 votes as a Democrat, 2,031 from the Independence line, 505 on the Green Party line, and 542 on the Working Families line. In 2002, Levy drew 18,074 as the Democrat, 2,879 from Independence, 482 on Green, and 565 from Working Families, official tallies show.

Both Levy's Republican opponents - Thomas Sarsfield in 2000 and Kathleen Brand in 2002 - carried the Conservative and Right-to-Life lines. The Greens lost their New York ballot status in November 2002 when they failed to get 50,000 votes for governor.

As for Altschuler, spokesman Rob Ryan said he never voted as a Green nor contributed funds. Altschuler told local "Liberty Report" blogger Frank Seabrook he once thought the party could help bring about clean water and air, but that "upon further review I understood that only conservative free markets policies offered real solutions to the challenges that face our environment and a free society."

FOOTNOTES: State Republican chairman Ed Cox, whose son Chris Cox also seeks the 1st C.D. nod, worked long ago with Ralph Nader, who attended the former's 1971 wedding to Tricia Nixon. Decades later, Nader ran for president with the Green Party. (Chris Cox is engaged to Andrea Catsimatidis, daughter of supermarket magnate and big political contributor John Catsimatidis).

JUMPING IN:Kenneth Mangan, who's owned small businesses, says dysfunction and corruption in Albany "have gone way over the edge" - and led him to launch a Democratic primary campaign today for the State Assembly seat held by Ginny Fields (D-Oakdale). Mangan, 55, of Sayville, and his wife, Karen McGuire, are known for their work for poor kids, such as founding the Christmastime "Every Child's Dream" event.