For Gillibrand, rivals in a digital world

This year's sole state election race has already sprouted a theme of its own: All things digital.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand runs in November for her first full term, against a Republican still to be chosen. Last week, Gillibrand's cosponsorship of the Protect Intellectual Property Act prompted a virtual storm of protest; it led fellow Senate sponsor Charles Schumer to vow anew to seek "a proper balance" between halting piracy by offshore websites of movies, music and books, and avoiding Internet censorship.

Potential GOP foes pounced. Nassau Comptroller George Maragos, a declared candidate, issued a statement: "That Gillibrand would even contemplate such a bill is both morally repugnant and un-American." (Never mind that Rep. Peter King, his fellow Nassau Republican, was backing the House version, the Stop Online Piracy Act, which was withdrawn Friday.)

Suddenly, as this week began, the spotlight swung to one of her possible rivals -- Marc Cenedella, 41, deep-pocketed founder of TheLadders, a job-search website. From cyberspace came a kind of Gillibrand gift -- blog banter posted under his name that sounded sexist enough to earn public criticism from New York's only statewide female incumbent and her supporters.

Perhaps that helps Maragos, 62, of Great Neck -- himself a tech-business success. Before becoming comptroller in 2010, he founded and ran SDS Financial Technologies, which develops data and money transfer networks. He's pledged to put up to $5 million of his own into the race. Even those who doubt his chances against Gillibrand privately call him an intelligent, pleasant figure who wins friends.

Maragos faces a host of potential obstacles -- as his allies seem aware.

On Sunday, Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello enthusiastically endorsed Maragos as the best-qualified candidate. On a different Sunday two years earlier, he and other Nassau dignitaries, including ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, rallied for one of their own, Bruce Blakeman -- who ultimately ran third in a primary won by Joseph DioGuardi, who went on to lose the general election. Blakeman, who speaks highly of Maragos, says the current candidate's resources should help him in a hard fundraising fight.

Then there's incumbency. A recent Siena poll found Gillibrand ahead of Maragos, 63 percent to 22 percent. Her fundraising is strong. And in presidential years, New York Democrats expect a turnout advantage.

Region, too, could be a problem. Carl Paladino's underdog victory in the 2010 GOP primary for governor marked an intraparty rebellion by the Western New York (where Cenedella was born), though Maragos last summer did cultivate contacts in travels upstate.

The previous fall, Maragos ousted incumbent Democrat Howard Weitzman, amid other upsets around the region -- as the Nassau GOP also took back the county executive's office and a legislative majority. Within months Maragos briefly stepped forward to challenge senior senator Schumer. Anti-Maragos forces are virtually guaranteed, if and when the time comes, to put a negative spin on his efforts to move up so quickly from the comptroller's job while the county's financial crisis continues. He'd also be called on to defend the details of his job performance -- maybe more loudly and prominently than if he only planned to seek re-election.

Does this Nassau candidacy augur a repeat of Maragos-Weitzman 2009 -- or perhaps Gillibrand-DioGuardi 2010? Technology cannot yet answer that question.