![\"Steve](\"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/files\/2010\/03\/Steve-Levy-259x145.jpg\" "\\"Steve")
Surrounded by state and local GOP leaders, Conservative Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Levy today announced his bid to run for Governor of New York on the Republican ticket.\u00a0 Levy, a former state assemblyman who currently serves as Suffolk County Executive, held two press conferences to declare his candidacy:\u00a0 one outside the state Capitol building in Albany and another in New York City’s Battery Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr. Levy has compared himself to Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, saying today, \u201cYou know in Massachusetts it was perceived very early on that there was going to be a coronation and he came along and said \u2018hold it, not so fast\u2026 the people will decide who will represent them.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Levy called his own candidacy a grassroots movement that goes beyond party saying, \u201cwhat I\u2019m doing is laying out my particular perspective on the recipe we need to save this state from going bankrupt and anyone who wants to join with me from any party I\u2019ll embrace and walk with, but so far these (Republicans) are the folks who are with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This morning in Albany, Levy signed the paperwork to change his registration to the Republican Party. The switch is not effective immediately and because of that Levy campaign strategist John Weaver says the candidate will need to get fifty percent of the votes at the upcoming state convention in order to be in the primary. \u00a0Weaver is confident though that Mr. Levy will get those votes, and added that Levy is officially a Republican today.<\/p>\n
Standing on the Hudson River with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, Levy declared that the people of New York are \u201ccrying out for someone with a proven record as an executive manager who can balance budgets, make the tough decisions to protect taxpayers and save New York from financial ruin.\u201d\u00a0 Pointing to his record of fiscal restraint, Levy claims he is that leader.<\/p>\n
He has the support of New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox who said in a statement, “We are happy that Steve Levy has come over to the Republican Party with his outstanding record of fiscal conservatism and plan to save New York.\u201d\u00a0 According to Levy, that plan includes, \u201cDeclaring a fiscal emergency, capping spending, capping property tax increases, and structural reform on every level and in every line of the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
On social issues, Levy says he is pro-choice but is against partial birth abortion and on the topic of gay rights that he is in favor of civil unions but marriage should be between a man and a woman.\u00a0 When asked about the healthcare bill, Levy said this is \u201cnot the right bill.\u201d \u00a0If passed, he claims it will be hurtful for New York State because it would require the state and local governments to come up with billions more in tax revenue to pay for the expanded Medicaid enrollment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Levy will square off against Republican Rick Lazio in the GOP primary.\u00a0 Lazio’s campaign was quick to go on the offensive today.\u00a0 In a statement, Lazio campaign manager Kevin Fullington referred to Levy as a liberal Democrat and said, “He is a supporter of Barack Obama… and he has voted for the largest tax increase in New York state history.\u00a0 He even said that the Obama stimulus package was a ‘manna from heaven’ that would ‘save lives’.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the likely Democratic gubernatorial candidate. \u00a0Citing an “accumulation of obstacles” current Democratic governor David Paterson dropped out of the race late last month.\u00a0 Paterson’s administration had been dogged by scandal, low approval numbers and dwindling Democratic support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Surrounded by state and local GOP leaders, Conservative Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Levy today announced his bid to run for Governor of New York on the Republican ticket.\u00a0 Levy, a former state assemblyman who currently serves as Suffolk County Executive, held two press conferences to declare his candidacy:\u00a0 one outside the state Capitol building in Albany and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}