LABOR INSTRUMENTAL IN DINAPOLI WIN; VOWS TO PROTECT PENSIONS

NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli surrounded by his WNY CSEA supporters on October 16th.  DiNapoli beat Harry Wilson and will serve a four year term ending 2014. (photo by Courtney Brunelle)

New York--  Thomas P. DiNapoli was elected state Comptroller Tuesday November 2, with strong support from CSEA and the labor community. This election is a victory for working families, as DiNapoli will fight hard to protect our pensions against corporate interests that would jeopardize them.

The race was not declared until shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday, which marked DiNapoli’s first statewide victory as political candidate.

Although Mr. Wilson refused to concede, saying the race was too close to call, DiNapoli took the stage at a victory celebration in Manhattan.  He told a sparse but extremely vocal crowd that his victory was an affirmation of his years of public service.  Some of the revelers and party faithful already went home-- Governor-Elect Andrew Cuomo and Lt. Governor-Elect Robert Duffy took the stage some three hours earlier.  “You don’t always need a famous name and you don’t always need to be rich to make it in politics,” DiNapoli said at the podium.  He also thanked the labor community for "putting him over the top."

Mr. DiNapoli, 56, a former assemblyman from Long Island, made ethics reform a key plank of his campaign, and he vowed to press forward with changes he has put in place to make state government more transparent.

DiNapoli had two major hurdles to overcome: his status as an Albany lawmaker in a year when anti-incumbency feelings ran high, and the financial advantage of Mr. Wilson, a Republican who poured in roughly $4 million of his own money into a campaign that outspent Mr. DiNapoli’s nearly two to one.

The comptroller is the sole trustee of the state’s $125 billion public pension fund.  Tom DiNapoli framed the race as a choice between “Main Street values and Wall Street values,” aiming to take advantage of voters’ lingering anger at the bank bailout and the financial crash.

Since taking over the comptroller’s post in 2007, DiNapoli has prohibited paid intermediaries from doing business with the pension fund and created a Web site, Open Book New York, that lists every state contract and all state agency spending.

In his victory speech, DiNapoli said, “It’s not always about the polls or the pundits or the papers. It is about the people and the working families of this great state.”