ALBANY – Rep. Bob Turner made his run for the US Senate official today.
He said he’ll seek both the Republican and Conservative nominations to challenge US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
But State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long said lawyer Wendy Long – who’s also seeking the GOP nod – “has really soaked up enthusiastically the support of my leaders up and down.
“I don’t see this thing turning around,” he added. “I think Bob got into this too late.”
Turner had planned to seek re-election to the Queens-Brooklyn seat of disgraced former Rep. Anthony Wiener, which he won in a special election last September.
But the district is likely to be essentially eliminated in New York’s congressional redistricting.
“There is serious work to be done to get this economy back on track, and I will not walk away from that work now,” Turner said in a statement today. “I will run for the Senate, and I will run to win.”
Republican officials say that as of now, Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos has lined up enough support to win a primary ballot spot at the state GOP convention Friday in Rochester.
“It’s kind of late,” Maragos said of Turner’s entry into the race.
One source said Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin, who’s also seeking the GOP nomination, is short of the required 25 percent of the weighted vote of the State Republican Committee and may drop out.
The source said a primary this year could actually help Republicans, since the courts have moved primaries for federal elections to June 26, from September – giving the GOP more time to rally around its nominee before the November general election.
Long called Turner a “friend” and “neighbor” and took credit for persuading Turner to run for Congress last year. But he said he thinks the best candidate against Gillibrand is a “qualified woman” and said Long “has all the qualifications to take Kirsten Gillibrand on.”
“She was like a rock star” at a Conservative Party fund-raiser in Albany last night, Long said.
Nonetheless, Long said he’s planning to meet with Turner later today.