US News

SUOZZI EYES A RE-RUN

NASSAU COUNTY Executive Thomas Suozzi, who mounted an ill-fated run for governor in 2006, has told associates he’s preparing to challenge newly installed Gov. Paterson in the Democratic primary in 2010, an influential Democrat has told The Post.

Suozzi confided his interest in opposing Paterson to several Democratic activists over the past two weeks and at a weekend meeting of the Democratic Rural Conference in Saratoga Springs, where his presence raised eyebrows among the 200 present.

“He has been telling local elected officials of his plan to challenge Paterson, saying he’s not up to the job of governor,” the Democratic insider said.

“Why do you think he was at the DRC meeting? It wasn’t because Nassau County has so many rural towns.”

Suozzi insisted it was “absolutely not true” that he has talked to anyone about challenging Paterson, saying he supports the governor, thinks the governor will seek election in 2010, and, if he does, “I expect I’ll be supporting him.”

Paterson has indicated he will seek election to his new job.

Suozzi had been campaigning in several states on behalf of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s presidential bid, and friends said he was hoping to earn a post in a Clinton administration.

But he is become pessimistic about Clinton’s chances for victory over Sen. Barack Obama and has decided to turn his attention toward the governor’s race, the source said.

Suozzi suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 gubernatorial Democratic primary, receiving less than 20 percent of the vote.

His challenge to Spitzer, as well as his early “Change Albany” effort to weaken Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, turned Suozzi into a Democratic pariah – but he has since largely rehabilitated himself.

Spitzer, before being forced to resign in disgrace last month, named Suozzi to head a politically significant commission currently drafting a statewide property-tax cap.

Suozzi has told friends that he has “made peace” with Silver, who, in 2004, gleefully blocked Suozzi from serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

In a related development, William Cunningham III, a former federal prosecutor and Suozzi’s chief counsel in the County Executive’s Office, is slated to be named today as Paterson’s special counsel, sources said.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com