New York Democrats chose Sen. Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday as their candidate for attorney general in November.
The five-term senator bested four other candidates in the primary with 34% of the vote, according to unofficial results. Nassau County district attorney Kathleen Rice finished second with 32%.
Schneiderman, 55, followed his victory with a written challenge Wednesday to his Republican opponent, Richmond County DA Dan Donovan, to debate how to police the state’s securities industry.
“One of the areas where we diverge is on how we would approach Wall Street and crack down on financial crimes,” Schneiderman wrote. “You would seek to relax the focus of the attorney general’s office when it comes to cracking down on these crimes, vowing not to 'disturb the garden,’ I intend to make protecting homeowners and consumers from bad actors on Wall Street a key concern.”
Donovan’s campaign accepted the challenge, without discussing Wall Street. He sharply criticized Schneiderman, who he claims puts the rights of criminals ahead of the needs of law enforcement.
“I am concerned you are not sufficiently focused on protecting the citizens of New York,” Donovan wrote.
In a position booklet released by the Schneiderman campaign, the Manhattan senator said he intended to follow in the footsteps of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and former Attorney General and Gov. Eliot Spitzer by using the state’s Martin Act to investigate and prosecute securities fraud. He said he intended to investigate the relationship between banks and credit rating agencies and would continue fraud investigations stemming from the financial meltdown of 2008.
Last year, Schneiderman co-sponsored legislation with Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, that would have allowed pension funds and institutional investors to sue securities firms under the Martin Act for damages in fraud cases.
The Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy organization, opposed the bill. The partnership said the measure, which never came to a general vote, would “make New York a magnet for class-action lawsuits against the companies that are the engine of our state economy.”
Kathryn Wylde, the partnership’s president, said she spoke with Schneiderman about the proposal and found him responsive.“I don’t see him as a Spitzer repeat,” Wylde said. “His focus is much more on public sector reform.”
The primary signals a change in the way Albany deals with public authorities. Brodsky, who also lost to Schneiderman in the primary and will not be returning to Albany in January, has been an outspoken critic of public authorities as chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions. Asked whether he would retire from politics after his primary loss, Brodsky responded, “I mean let the body get cold here, will ya?”
Also defeated in the primary was Eric Dinallo, former state superintendent of insurance.
