Spotorno may not have to worry. Also looking to go to Washington representing New York is Wendy Long, 55, who took on the state’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, in 2012, losing by 46 percentage points, the largest margin of defeat for any statewide candidate in New York history. The Manhattan-based attorney is expected to decide next month whether or not to run. She is the darling of the state Conservative Party.
Schumer, 66, is expected to become the next Senate Democratic leader when Sen. Harry Reid retires from the post. Schumer says he is not taking his popularity or his $22 million campaign fund for granted.
“The day someone feels they’re invincible is the day they are on the path to losing,” Schumer told The Jewish Press. “I’m working hard. I work hard because that’s my nature.”
Schumer received 64 percent of the vote in 2010, garnering more than three million votes. In three elections, Schumer says the only county he never carried was rural Hamilton county, population 5,000. His top staffer in his New York City office once told Schumer the reason he never carried Hamilton was that after visiting the Adirondack-based county six times “it’s the only county where he actually met every single voter.” In 2010 Schumer faced little-known Jay Townsend, who received only 31 percent of the vote.
Seeking to oust Governor Cuomo in 2018 are four Republicans: Congressman Chris Gibson, 51, of historic Kinderhook, Columbia county; businessman Harry Wilson, 44, of Scarsdale, Westchester county; Buffalo school board member and real estate magnate Carl Paladino, 69; and Cuomo’s 2014 nemesis, 48-year old Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.