Manning: I won’t be the Conservative Party’s Andrew Cuomo

Assemblyman Patrick Manning – who despite all the recent news – continues his quest for the Conservative Party line.

Here’s a guy who says that he’s "duty-bound" to run on the Conservative Party line, whether or not he gets the Republican Party nod. His chief rival for the Conservative slate – former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso – said that only a candidate that combines the Republican and Conservative lines has even a prayer of challenging an Eliot Spitzer. Talk about putting the Republicans and Steve Minarik in a box – when the guy you want (William Weld) is likely never going to get the Conservative stamp.

But getting back to Manning… he had an interesting analogy to make. He points to Andrew Cuomo’s 2002 gubernatorial run. Cuomo got the Liberal Party line and wound up dropping out of the race for the Democratic line. Manning said Cuomo’s dead stop on any further campaigning doomed the Liberal line. They lost ballot status… and now the party is essentially defunct. Manning brings this up as a warning – should Faso or Manning or Daniels get the Conservative nod, but not the Republican, they better continue an agressive campaign. Otherwise the Conservatives could be looking like the old Liberal Party faithful.

This kind of talk should be giving Steve Minarik visions of 1990 and Conservative Herb London nearly lapping Republican Pierre Rinfret.

You want to hear more from Manning? Click here to listen to an extended interview with the candidate (all the stuff that didn’t make it to WXXI’s Need to Know broadcast). That includes

–A discussion about social conservative issues and the Republican Party, including his pro-life stand.

—And his views on the way to convince the New York State Legislature to
give up the power of controlling legislative district lines.

Next up – John Faso.