Free Republic

--snip-- He is also a conservative on nonfiscal matters, whose political views would put him at odds with many New Yorkers. In interviews and in this week’s debate, he has been extremely unimpressive, hardly the man whom voters would normally want to hire as the state’s chief fiscal officer and sole trustee of New York’s $140 billion pension fund. But one of the main jobs of the comptroller is to make sure people who handle taxpayers’ money understand the very clear line between their personal expenditures and the public treasury. There is no way Mr. Hevesi can fulfill that vital...

J. Christopher Callaghan, the Republican candidate for New York State comptroller, has a secret friend. “I don’t know his name,” Mr. Callaghan said in an interview. But one thing is clear: For some reason, he said, the person clearly despises his opponent, the incumbent, Alan G. Hevesi, a Democrat. It was this secret friend who whispered rumors to Mr. Callaghan that Mr. Hevesi’s wife was being driven around by a state employee at taxpayer expense. When Mr. Callaghan made the charges public last week, his long-shot candidacy was given new life, and Mr. Hevesi was forced to apologize. The comptroller...