An important race voters may not have heard about will be decided today: the race for New York state comptroller.

The race between Democrat Alan Hevesi, Republican John Faso and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins escaped both the publicity of the media and attention of many voters. A recent Marist College election poll shows Hevesi in the lead 11percentage points, ahead of Faso.

Jeffrey Stonecash, department chairman and professor of political science, cited the biggest problem in the campaign: none of the candidates have name recognition, which has made campaigning difficult. Stonecash said Faso has tried negative attacks on Hevesi during the campaign but these have not really affected the race in any significant way and have gone unnoticed.

Tim Schlittner, chairman of the College Democrats at Syracuse University and a senior political science and broadcast journalism major, said Hevesi has run a strong campaign for comptroller and did a great job as comptroller of New York City in the past.

“He has the experience to do justice to what Carl McCall has done in the office of comptroller,” Schlittner said.

Ryan Colombo, a junior political science and history major and chairman of the College Republicans at SU, did not share the same sentiment about McCall’s work as comptroller. He said Faso is very concerned with the lack of funding for higher education in the state of New York.

“He will be more responsible with investing money, unlike McCall he would not invest in companies outside of New York,” Colombo said.

Schlittner said he is encouraging people he knows to vote straight down the Democratic line, and that the greatest asset any candidate can have is experience.

“Managing the finances of New York City is not an easy task and Mr. Hevesi will bring the same level of excellence he had in the city to the state level,” Schlittner said.

Colombo said SU students should vote for Faso so they would not have to leave the state of New York to look for a job after graduation because Faso’s investment in state would help keep jobs in state.

Stonecash thinks the race will ultimately come down to who is able to gain some name recognition.

“This race is going to come down to visibility. Whoever can build up his name will win,” Stonecash said.

Published on November 4, 2002 at 12:00 pm