Mike Long

"There is no better state chairman in the country than Mike Long," said Republican John Faso in his concession speech just now, referring to the leader of the Conservative Party.

Nothing in there for Stephen Minarik, who will be the Republican State Chairman for at least another few minutes.

-- Azi Paybarah

Mike Long is not happy with the way things are going for John Spencer.

"It's beginning to look like one of those years that nobody is paying attention," said the Conservative Party chairman, who hopes to raise between $150,000 and $200,000 for Spencer at a fund-raiser at the Sheraton tonight. "He has got to continue to work hard and find money, which his becoming very difficult for him."

Long said that he wished more of the county leaders who rallied behind Spencer and John Faso at the Republican convention had spent more time out campaigning against Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer.

"Not every one of my leaders are working, but in the last two weeks a lot of people have gotten engaged," he said. He also blamed the press for ignoring the two Republican-Conservative candidates.

"There is a turn-off valve someplace," he said.

--Jason Horowitz

After the Conservative party's (pre)convention yesterday, where John Faso predictably picked up the endorsement, we thought it made sense to give the party's chairman, Mike Long, a quick call and measure just how well he thinks his candidate is doing.

Long gave his usual spiel on how Faso is more in touch with New York and that Weld is "Disconnected from New York voters and doesn't understand New York politics." He said that Weld's remark about Ground Zero "is a clear example that he doesn't understand the hurt that went on here in New York. It is clearly very sacred ground. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it came out. But it didn't come out well."

That last magnanimous note, especially coming from Mike Long, makes us think that the Faso camp is really starting to think that things are going their way. Long didn't seem the slightest bit worried about a potential endorsement for Weld from Governor Pataki ("I don't think the election is won or lost on his endorsement or lack of his endorsement") and clearly believes, like John Spencer does, that Faso has "picked up a lot of momentum."

"Last night gave him a boost but he has done a lot on his own," said Long.

The question is, what has Weld been doing to suppress this surge.

—Jason Horowitz

Listen to the interview here.

Here's about three minutes of audio from a brief telephone interview with Conservative Party chief Mike Long on the subject of Bill Weld.

"He just has no support within the ranks of the Conservative Party.... He doesn't have my support either," Long says of the favored GOP candidate for Governor. "It might be a good idea to rethink whether he runs for Governor or not."

[Apologies for the low sound and, er, non-seamless presentation. Working on it.]

Mike Long has appeared lately to welcome Bill Weld's "evolution" away from supporting same-sex marriage, but in an interview with the American Spectator, he strikes a much less compromising note.

"Weld gained no ground whatsoever -- nothing changed there," he said of the recent party gathering. "All were received cordially, but it appears to me that while (Daniels) was a great speaker, Faso and Manning have clearly garnered most of the support amongst the rank and file."

Also: "There was great sentiment at [the conference] from our leaders throughout the state to mobilize rapidly behind our own candidate. This is important to help make the point to the Republicans that Weld is a no-go."

And:

Q: Some have suggested a compromise scenario, whereby the Conservatives might go along with Weld if they were given the opportunity to choose his running mate. True?

Long: False.

(via Capitol Confidential)

With John Faso and Pat Manning scrapping over county-level Conservative Party endorsements and Tom Suozzi romancing Mike Long, the GOP leadership's preferred candidate for Governor is getting into the game too.

Conservative icon Herb London, the party's candidate against Pataki 12 years ago, has written Party leaders encouraging them to endorse Bill Weld on, primarily, fiscal grounds.

In the letter, obtained by the Politicker (.pdf), London writes:

"I don't agree with Bill on every issue. But unity does not infer unanimity. In my opinion, Bill offers more than any other Gubernatorial candidate the Conservative Party might consider. He deserves to be at the top of this ticket."

CORRECTION: 1990 is the year London ran for Governor.

"Clearly, it appears to me that the only person who doesn't understand that the Pirro for Senate campaign is over is Jeanine Pirro," Conservative Party leader Mike Long told The Politicker this afternoon.  read more »

Former Assemblyman John Faso told participants in the conservative Monday Meeting this evening that he's forming an exploratory committee with an eye toward running for Governor next year, one person who was there told The Politicker.

Faso, who barely lost a bid at the Comptroller's job in 2002, argued that he is the only candidate with a shot at uniting GOP and Conservative voters, and as he spoke Conservative Party leader Mike Long was seen nodding in approval.

Weld, Daniels, Golisano, and now Faso. This is getting complicated, and on the verge of generating "struggle for the soul of the Republican Party" headlines.  read more »

This site doesn't usually get into the details of the Upstate arm of the Conservative Party, but this one is too weird to pass up.

Senate Candidate John Spencer, the former Yonkers Mayor who likes to use the word LIBERAL a lot, put out a press release the other day claiming the support of eight Conservative Party leaders.

One was "Dick Dean, Yates County Conservative Party Chairman."

Problem is, there is no evidence that such a person exists, and he's certainly not the a Conservative Party activist. Apparently nobody of that name even registered to the Conservative Party.

"I haven't heard of the guy," Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, who ought to know, told The Politicker.

(Spencer didn't immediately return a call seeking an explanation of the endorsement.)  read more »

UPDATE: Spencer aide Christian Winthrop tells us the guy's name is actually Dick Reagan, and that the error has been corrected. Dean, Reagan, an easy mistake to make.

On a day when the Times rewrites our Rupert-and-Hillary romance (two months late, but thanks for the plug!), the Post (whose idea of giving credit to another source is "it emerged") eschews the meta and puts out a special collectors-edition issue that shows why, love it or hate it, the Post wields outsized influence on New York politics.

Metro editor Jesse Angelo and politics editor Gregg Birnbaum must be particularly pleased with the cover story, which actually manages to make Al Pirro look even worse: we knew he had mis-spent business funds to fight, and lose, a paternity suit; now we learn that he bought his previously-ignored daughter a car the day Jeanine announced her Senate run, a "glaringly obvious" move, as his ex-lover helpfully explains.

And then there's this, sure to impress Mike Long: "She said the two split after she told Al Pirro that she was pregnant and he told her to get an abortion. "

Then there's Dicker's report -- which mirrrors what I've been hearing -- that there are senior Republicans basically rooting for Pirro to fail, also an important story. Along the way, Leslie Snyder gets savaged, Margarita Lopez takes another hit, and we read a nice little tidbit about Hillary.  read more »

Enough of the rewriting; it's an impressive paper today. Which isn't to say we wouldn't mind a little credit when they take our stories.

UPDATED: At the urging of an enraged Postie, this item was updated to spread internal credit around a bit more fairly.

The signs of weakness and disorganization over at the once-powerful Conservative Party have been growing clearer and clearer. The most obvious is the volume of Mike Long's voice. He's been out on his stump more than any self-respecting back-room power broker should be.

Now it emerges that the Board of Elections has disqualified 8 Conservative Party officials in Brooklyn. That's because they're dead, in one case for 9 years.

(We have this from a conservative blog, Right Side of New York. We're a bit puzzled by the debate below on whether we're neocons or more traditional conservatives(!?), but we'll risk inflaming it further by admitting that we read conservative blogs.)

Anyway, the blogger who turned this up links to a nice .pdf image of one of the Board of Elections notices. He also notes that Brooklyn is Long's home borough.  read more »

"Remember, just because you died almost 10 years ago doesn't mean that you won't have a promising political career ahead of you in the Conservative Party."

Mayor Giuliani hassummoned his occasional tormentor and onetime rival,  read more »

Like a spurned suitor holding a bouquet of wilted flowers, Conservative Party chairman Michael Long  read more »

New York seems to be heading toward a political train wreck involving five or six parties.  read more »