Embattled Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta – fighting a huge budget deficit and his own Republican party – yesterday said he won’t seek re-election, despite a $2.5 million war chest.
Former Rep. Rick Lazio is considering campaigning for the office but said he wasn’t “prepared to say right now” if he’ll toss his hat in the ring.
But Lazio praised Gulotta for withdrawing early “so a Republican candidate can enter the race and mount a campaign.”
Lazio was a late entry as the GOP candidate against Sen. Hillary Clinton after Mayor Rudy Giuliani dropped out last May.
His wife, Pat, was more direct, responding to whether she wanted to be the First Lady of Nassau County: “I don’t think so,” she said after a laugh.
A source said GOP polls show Lazio – who risks being tagged a “carpetbagger” since he’d have to move to Nassau from Suffolk County – beating any Democratic opponent for the office by double-digit percentages. Lazio was set to meet with GOP leaders today to talk things over.
“He’s got serious personal issues but the door is still open,” the source said.
In the Gulotta administration, the county deficit has been estimated as high as $300 million, and his own party asked him not to run again.
Gulotta, in a press conference at his Mineola office, said he would not run for “personal” reasons. He said he accepted his “share of responsibility” for the red ink, noting that belt-tightening measures resulted in a $48 million surplus last year.
“I am convinced that if I were to be a candidate for re-election, the dominating issue of the campaign would be the county’s recent fiscal problems, to the exclusion of a healthy and productive dialogue about many positive and constructive issues,” Gulotta said.
Gulotta said his wife, Betsy, “expressed her heartfelt feelings” that he not run again after 14 years in office.
“I will devote the remaining months of my term to addressing the quality-of-life issues that have made Nassau County a premier county in the nation and ensuring the future fiscal strength of our county,” he said.
“By excluding myself as a candidate, I hope to pursue those critical issues, unfettered by the influence of a political campaign.”