He founded -- and funded -- the Independence Party to get away from the influence of the two major political parties in New York State. When that didn't work, Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano decided it was easier to switch than fight.
Today, the Associated Press reports, Golisano filed papers to change his registration from independent to Republican.
Golisano's a rich, rich guy. He runs Paychex, a company that handles other companies' payrolls.
He's changing parties so he can decide whether to take the next step -- entering the race for Governor.
Boy, would that shuffle the deck. New York's populist Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has led every poll against every Republican challenger by large margins. The GOP candidates so far are nobodies -- former Secretary of State Randy Daniels and a couple of Assemblymen. Ex-Massachusetts Governor William Weld brought the cast up a notch, but not much.
Polls show that even Golisano lags far behind Spitzer.
"Surely on paper, Golisano would represent a tremendous threat to Weld and make Weld's life miserable," said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York City-based Democratic strategist, to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle today.
Link: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051011/NEWS01/51011001/1002/NEWS
This will just muddy up the GOP primary even further. And whoever wins will have spent a lot of money and taken a lot of hits.
But the only guy with the cash to take on Spitzer is Golisano, and Wall Street wants Spitzer to go down.