John Faso - 2006 Gubernatorial Race

2006 Gubernatorial Race

In 2005, Faso announced his intention to run for governor. He positioned himself early as a conservative upstate candidate, while stressing his childhood roots in Long Island. He originally faced former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, former Secretary of State Randy Daniels, and Assemblyman Patrick Manning. Daniels and Manning both dropped out and Faso became the main opposition to Weld. His campaign was managed by Bill O'Reilly.

It has been reported that in early 2006, Weld offered Faso the chance to join his ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor, an offer Faso reportedly declined. Faso gained increasing support from party leaders in various counties, including Westchester and Suffolk, both of which had large delegate counts to the state convention.

In late May 2006, Faso received the nomination of the Conservative Party for governor, which guaranteed him a spot on the November ballot. He pledged to continue running for governor on the Conservative line if he lost the Republican primary to Weld. On the day he received the Conservative nomination, Faso announced his selection of Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef as his running mate for lieutenant governor.

On June 1, 2006, the Republican State Convention voted 61% to 39% to endorse Faso. By achieving over 50 percent of the vote, Faso was the designated Republican Party candidate in the September primary against Weld, but Weld still had enough to force a primary. As the Washington Post put it, "now it turns out whoever loses the GOP primary will stay in the race -- in a position likely to siphon votes from the Republican nominee." For this reason, Weld was under tremendous pressure to drop out of the race. On June 5, Stephen J. Minarik, the chairman of the state Republican Party, who had been Weld's most prominent backer, called on Weld to withdraw in the interest of party unity. Weld formally announced his withdrawal from the race, and his support of Faso, the following day.

John Faso has made fighting increases in school property taxes a central theme of his campaign. In April, he announced a plan to stop the growth in school taxes and charged that Democrat Eliot Spitzer's plan for this issue would lead to a tax increase.

Faso was the original sponsor of charter school legislation and was a leading figure in the passage of Governor Pataki's proposal to create charter schools in New York State in 1998. He supports expanding the current cap on charter schools.

After being vastly outspent, Faso was swamped by Democratic nominee Eliot Spitzer, who attained 69% of the vote.

Interestingly, both candidates to whom Faso lost statewide elections, Eliot Spitzer and Alan Hevesi, were forced to resign their offices in personal and legal scandal.