Posted on 11/01/2002 4:46:23 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
If Dora L. Irizarry is the underdog of underdogs in a quixotic and underfunded effort to dislodge incumbent Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, well, what else is new?
As a Puerto Rican immigrant who grew up in the South Bronx watching neighborhood kids kill each other in acts of senseless violence and themselves through drug abuse, Irizarry is comfortable wearing her outsider shoes. Obscurity, lack of money and poor odds are no stranger to her. Been there, done that.
But Irizarry is also a survivor and a fighter, and with the challenge she now faces against Spitzer, she had better be.
Records show that Irizarry has raised only a fraction of the campaign money in Spitzer's kitty. Surveys show the majority of voters in a Democrat-dominated state have never heard of the Republican nominee. Pollsters say Irizarry can look forward on Election Day to nothing more than a humbling defeat. Pundits in Albany portray her as a ticket-balancing sacrificial lamb.
Yet Irizarry sounds more like a candidate running neck-and-neck than one up to her neck in the political graveyard. She admits she has a long way to go to defeat Spitzer, but notes the journey is not any longer or unlikely than that from public housing to Yale University and Columbia Law School, let alone the bench. Republican candidates were not exactly coming out of the woodwork to take on a popular and well-funded incumbent who has garnered national headlines for his battles with Wall Street. But when Gov. George E. Pataki called her last spring, Irizarry promptly agreed to carry the party torch.
Irizarry is a trailblazer. She has already made history as the first Hispanic woman ever to have served on the Court of Claims. Now, she is making history as the first Hispanic woman ever to run for statewide office. She is running at the personal urging of Pataki and GOP Chairman Sandy Treadwell, and is fully aware of what her presence affords the governor and the Republican Party.
"I think it rounds out the ticket and sends out a message of inclusion," said Irizarry, a 47-year-old single mother with a 16-year-old son, Justin, a student at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School. "This is the first time we've had a Hispanic woman running for statewide office, and it shows the governor and the party are sincere when they say they look to all different communities to find people who can do the job."
The governor, who is comfortably ahead in his race for re-election, is well-known for his loyalty. He has frequently found new judgeships and other government posts for jurists who, at his urging, sacrificed their spot on the bench to help the party.
Irizarry, however, insists she is in this to win, not to collect a consolation prize.
Although the Albany rumor mill has her returning to the bench as her reward, Irizarry said she has been promised absolutely nothing for her efforts, and has had no discussions with the governor or anyone else about her post-Election Day options. She said she did not apply for the upcoming Court of Appeals vacancy.
"I have had no promises, no assurances," Irizarry said in a recent interview at state Republican headquarters in Albany, where she was en route to a campaign stop in Utica. "I am working on this campaign like I am going to win."
Born in Puerto Rico
Dora Lizette Irizarry was born Jan. 26, 1955, in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. When she was 9 months old, her family moved to New York City. Her father attended classes at night to become an electrician. Her mother went to night school to obtain an associate's degree and worked as a public school paraprofessional. Both are now retired.
Since childhood, Irizarry was drawn to the law, an ambition fostered by the desire to improve her community and the insistence of her parents that in the United States she could go as far as her abilities and efforts could take her.
"I always wanted to be a lawyer," she said. "My mother found this composition I wrote when I was about 10 talking about how I wanted to be a female Perry Mason. We didn't have very many women role models in those days."
After attending Bronx High School of Science, Irizarry went to Yale, where she majored in political sociology and graduated with honors. From there, she went to Columbia Law School, and then began a career as a prosecutor -- rather than a "female Perry Mason" -- in the borough where she was raised. Irizarry said there was some resentment in the South Bronx when one of their own joined law enforcement.
"Having grown up in a crime-ridden neighborhood where I and members of my family were victims of crime, where I saw young people dying all the time from drugs and from violence, I felt that it was important for victims of crime to come to the D.A.'s office and see someone like them," she said.
Over the next several years, Irizarry held a variety of prosecutorial positions in Manhattan and the Bronx, concentrating largely on narcotics cases. She worked in the Bronx District Attorney's Office, the Office of the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor, and the New York County District Attorney's Office. Irizarry was also a special assistant in the U.S. attorney's office and a special deputy attorney general with the statewide Organized Crime Task Force. Politics came much later, and somewhat by accident.
"I was disappointed with the Democratic Party because I felt that they had pretty much ignored the Hispanic community," Irizarry said. "Along comes this fellow named Rudy Giuliani and I voted for him. He started turning things around, to the point where the neighborhood I live in on the Lower East Side is totally revitalized. And then along comes Governor Pataki and I felt he was really addressing the issues of the Hispanic community."
Giuliani named Irizarry to a Criminal Court judgeship in December 1995, and the following year she enrolled as a Republican. In 1997, Pataki -- who also holds diplomas from Yale and Columbia -- nominated Irizarry for the Court of Claims, and in that capacity she served as an acting Supreme Court justice presiding over criminal cases. Privately, both prosecutors and defense attorneys have grumbled about Irizarry's performance in Supreme Court. But she really had little time to make a name for herself or to develop a track record. She resigned in May to run against Spitzer.
Irizarry's campaign is focused on a handful of themes.
She wants to strengthen the Organized Crime Task Force and go after mobsters and drug kingpins, play a stronger hand in criminal prosecutions, pursue more aggressive asset forfeiture policies, fight gang activity and work toward bail reform measures -- such as allowing New York judges, like their federal counterparts, to consider dangerousness as well as risk of flight in setting bail. Irizarry said she would place greater emphasis on criminal prosecutions, although not to the detriment of consumer litigation.
The Republican nominee is critical of what she characterized as Spitzer's "soft" stance on corporate crime, and said the incumbent seems more interested in headlines than results. For instance, she said that Spitzer's much trumpeted action against Merrill Lynch & Co., which led to a $100 million fine, fell short because there were no criminal penalties against the actors.
"If we don't apply criminal sanctions and only impose a fine [on the company], it becomes simply a cost of doing business that is ultimately passed on to the consumer," she said. "My interest is in making sure all of the people are protected. The current attorney general has focused primarily on corporate fraud and corporate wrongdoing, which is fine. But I find his approach quite soft on white-collar crime."
Ms. Irizarry was particularly critical of the Merrill Lynch matter, where she said the repercussions were felt more by consumers than any of the principals.
"It is all well and good that attention is being drawn to the issue [of corporate fraud], but it seems to me that my opponent rushed to a settlement so that he would get a big splash," she said. "Obviously, this is major news, and he knew it. He rushed to get headlines right before election time, without taking that step back and looking at criminal penalties. . . . I think it is important to have a solution that will foster faith and confidence in the justice system."
Spitzer's spokesman, Darren Dopp, said it is ironic that the Republican opponent is criticizing the attorney general for not going far enough when others in her party have criticized his aggressiveness toward corporate cheaters. On the merits, though, Dopp made two points: The Merrill Lynch matter remains open, and Spitzer was the catalyst for what are likely to be significant reforms in the financial services industry.
"It was, and it is, imperative to be extremely careful and to be balanced in what we did and what we are doing now," Dopp said. "The activities, rightfully so, have been regarded as a catalyst toward some fundamental reforms on Wall Street. . . . The changes that have taken place are extremely positive, and ones that will help protect small investors and help reform the industry. We are not done yet, and I think we are on the verge of something truly extraordinary with regard to a global resolution of the issues."
Irizarry supports abortion, opposes the Rockefeller Drug Laws and favors the death penalty -- positions that mirror those of Pataki. She declined to say, though, whether she agrees with the attacks Pataki aimed at the Court of Appeals several years ago, and could not immediately think of any rulings with which she strongly disagrees. Early in his tenure, the governor had criticized the Court for what he claimed were rulings that were soft on crime. However, he has not been critical of the Court for several years.
"I certainly think they are all exceptional people," Irizarry said of the current Court, which includes three judges appointed by Pataki. "I have had the opportunity to work with [Chief Judge Judith S.] Kaye, with [Judge] Carmen Ciparick. I think that under Judge Kaye we have had tremendous improvement. I certainly support her plan to restructure the courts and make them more accessible, more intelligible, less intimidating."
Irizarry said her candidacy sends a powerful message to the minority community.
"Immigrants, minorities, Hispanic communities are very much enrolled in the message my candidacy sends out," she said. "The American dream is very much alive and well in New York state, and you can come here with nothing, work hard, get a good education and achieve anything you want."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.