Harry Wilson, the 2010 Republican candidate for state comptroller who ran a competitive race against Democratic incumbent Thomas P. DiNapoli, has been mentioned prominently as a potential candidate against Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand this year.
His name even surfaced just last week in the latest Siena College poll testing Gillibrand's re-election effort.
But in a conversation with The Buffalo News today, Wilson said such a race probably will not happen this year.
"I have given it great consideration, but I am very unlikely to do it," he said.
Wilson, who amassed a fortune as a corporate turnaround guru, has been mentioned as a candidate along with Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos and Marc Cenedella, a Fredonia native who founded a national job search website called TheLadders.com. Wilson said today he believes he has the ability to work across the aisle to confront the "pending disaster" of out-of-control spending.
He said family obligations and new business opportunities will most likely preclude a run this year, though he acknowledged he has not dismissed future opportunities.
"She is also a formidable candidate," he said of Gillibrand. "I think she is underestimated as a candidate."
--Robert J. McCarthy
