This was originally going to be a comment on http://www.swingstateproject.c… but it ran long:
The NY GOP seems to be somewhat firmly behind Levy. Additionally, I read something yesterday about Some Dude from Buffalo who wants to run on a Tea Party line. So there could potentially be a 3-way split on the right. Steve Levy by the way, isn’t called “the George Wallace of Long Island” for nothing. He’s a rabid Lou Dobbs style anti-immigration nut who may not be a party-line Republican, but is anything but a Liberal.
And here’s how it gets better:
Ballot order in all elections in NY is determined by that party’s performance in the previous gubernatorial election. Based on the 2006 election, the ballot order is currently:
Row A – Democratic Party (2,740,864 votes for Sptizer/Paterson)
Row B – Republican Party (1,105,681 votes for Faso/Vanderhoef)
Row C – Independence Party (190,661 votes for Spitzer/Paterson)
Row D – Conservative Party (168,654 votes for Faso/Vanderhoef)
Row E – Working Families Party (155,184 votes for Spitzer/Paterson)
Should Levy get Scozzafava’d by Lazio, that would mean that the Conservative Party would move up to row B for the next four years, with the GOP being knocked down to Row C or possibly even lower, which might happen depending on how the yet-to-be-determined (could be anyone, including Cuomo) Independence Party candidate performs on that line.
This kind of split would also obviously help Cuomo immensely, although I doubt he’ll need any help winning in a landslide even against a unified candidate of the right.
It would also be cool to see the WFP move up a row, although I don’t honestly see that happening, and if the Tea Party line is created and gets enough votes, it could take Row E and move the WFP to Row F.