Grudge Match

Senator Vincent Leibell and Assemblyman Greg Ball have exposed their deep personal rivalry since Ball announced his decision to run for the Senator’s seat, rather than continue his campaign for Congress. Leibell has charged Ball with waving a white flag of surrender, while Ball counters that Leibell has enabled corruption and sown dissension in the Republican party.

While Leibell considers his political options, for 2010 Ball has released a poll, claiming a 46-41 lead over Leibell among likely voters.

“I have never backed down from any fight, public or private” Senator Leibell said, “Ball saw a tough opponent [primary challenger Nan Hayworth] and waved the white flag. In 27 years of office, I’ve had some pretty bloody flags, but never a white one that I’ve shown.”

Ball has said “We are very confident, if we meet Senator Leibell in a primary… For the first time people are going to see what Vinnie Leibell is, and what he isn’t.”

“I think that’s false bravado,” Leibell said, “He is operating under the assumption that I will run for another seat. Nan Hayworth is a formidable candidate with excellent credentials and good financing, I think I have good credentials too.”

“I have no doubt in my mind that if I had stayed in the race against John Hall I would have won,” Ball said, “and the Senator is looking to hand off his seat to Mike Kaplowitz, a Democrat, and with redistricting, the district would be gone within two years.”

Democrats outnumber Republicans 32 to 30 in the state senate, and with GOP victories throughout the Hudson Valley, Republicans are hopeful that a renewed GOP majority in the senate could prevent a politically crippling reapportionment.

Though Leibell has long been rumored to be interested in succeeding Bob Bondi as Putnam County Executive, his senate colleagues, anxious to return to the majority, have been pressuring him to run for senate one last time. “It would be very difficult to retake the senate without this seat,” Leibell said. “The leadership has spoken to me about my plans. The senate, the county executive, and other opportunities are all in play.”

But the two GOP rivals are motivated by more than concerns for the party at large. Ball’s decision has re-exposed a burning political rivalry. “If you look at the fights I’ve had with my own party, they can all be traced back to Senator Leibell,” Ball said.

“Just like Vinnie Leibell used John Degnan to try and hurt my young candidacy, I would have been similarly victorious against his new surrogate [Nan Hayworth],” Ball said, “but I decided to take the fight to the source, someone who has used Putnam County as his personal piggy bank, and uses surrogates, so he can smile while he smears his opponents.”

“He knew about reapportionment before he raised money for a Congressional race,” Leibell said in response. “It’s too bizarre. He spends months saying he is in it to the end. He should return that money, because he misled people.”

After Thanksgiving, Ball released a poll, conducted by Vitale and Associates, of 300 likely voters in the 40th Senate District. The poll showed that in a theoretical primary matchup, Assemblyman Ball was ahead of Senator Leibell 46 to 41 with 13 percent undecided.

“It’s the same poll that Roll Call reported on as being phony,” Leibell said. “[Ball] likes to run as an outsider,” Leibell added. “But he is the one who sends out thousands of emails begging for money, not Vinnie Leibell. He issues press releases and polls, not Vinnie Leibell. These are things a professional politician does, I’m not doing them.”

This poll comes just over a week after another poll showing Ball and John Hall running tightly among two-thirds of the Congressional district. Washington media outlets like Roll Call initially reported that the poll covered the entire district. However, the survey was, in fact, conducted within State Senate District 40.

“There is a long line of bodies that Vinnie Leibell has tried to take out,” Ball said. “Sheriff Smith, the Putnam County [Republican] Chairman, and [Yorktown Town Councilman] Terrence Murphy. A lot of people have had enough.”

“I don’t talk about which race I’m in until an election year,” Leibell said. “He’s running around worrying about his job, while I’m in Albany worrying about everyone’ else’s. That young man needs to learn to focus; this isn’t a game.”

If the immediate fallout from Ball’s announcement is a preview of a primary race to come, the Republican party is in for a long, difficult, and contentious year in 2010.