State comptroller candidates face off in lone debate

ALBANY — The visibility level of the race to be New York’s comptroller might best be summarized by how the lone debate in that contest started on Wednesday night: Moderators took the time to explain to viewers what exactly a comptroller is.

Democrat Tom DiNapoli is seeking what amounts to a fifth term in that role, which handles tasks like overseeing the state’s $246 billion pension fund, one of the largest public pensions in the nation. His Republican challenger is Paul Rodriguez, an investor who received 5.6 percent of the vote as the Conservative Party nominee in last year’s race to be New York City’s comptroller.

The Spectrum News debate between the two was relatively amicable and polite by modern standards.

“I have to agree in many ways with Mr. DiNapoli on this,” Rodriguez said about concerns about the state’s approach to gambling.

“Al Smith is a very good answer, actually,” he said when the incumbent responded to a lightning-round question about who the best New York governor has been.

They had some differences, particularly on how much of an activist role the pension fund should take in the companies it invests in.

“More diverse representation, more women on boards, makes a company better,” DiNapoli said. “The Wall Street mentality of only looking at numbers and being blind to what a company is actually doing is the wrong strategy.”

Rodriguez disagreed, saying that he doesn’t think “that public pension plans should be managed like private activist hedge funds.”

But there was nothing that seemed likely to catch the attention of any New York voters who did not watch a debate that overlapped with a Yankees playoff game that might have been on a few more television screens throughout the state. There is thus likely little chance that the shared stage will dramatically shift the dynamics of the race.

And all signs are that DiNapoli, who received more votes than any state-level candidate in both 2014 and 2018, probably has less to worry about on Election Day than any Democrat in the heavily blue state.

A Siena College Research Institute poll released earlier this week found DiNapoli with a 24 percentage point lead. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who had a 20-point lead in that same poll, was the only other statewide candidate who had a similar lead.

It seems highly unlikely that any major last-minute advertising campaigns might be responsible for a shift in those numbers.

Rodriguez has raised $3,184 for his campaign to date — $3,000 of which came in the form of a transfer from state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy’s congressional committee.

He has spent a total of $10.86 so far, state records show.

DiNapoli has spent 201,733 times as much money as his opponent: about $2.2 million this election cycle. And he could plausibly double that, as he had about $2 million left in the bank earlier this month. DiNapoli, a former Long Island assemblymember, was appointed comptroller in 2007 by the state Legislature to succeed Alan Hevesi, who resigned in scandal, and was subsequently elected in 2010, 2014 and 2018 — making him the fourth longest-tenured top executive branch official in state history.

“Based on the Siena poll, based on everything else I’ve seen, there’s no reason to think he won’t accomplish that feat [of being the state’s top vote-getter] for a third time,” Siena poll spokesman Steve Greenberg said.

“He’s got a base of a million New Yorkers that he talks to regularly because he’s managing their pensions, and they're active employees or they’re retirees. Traditionally, the comptroller’s office has been seen as the nonpartisan office and whoever is the steward, if they run it that way, the voters reward them.”