Politics on the Hudson

Harry Wilson’s bid for state comptroller got underway today as the former hedge fund-manager from Scarsdale, Westchester County, sent out a letter to GOP leaders asking for their support of his candidacy.

“The challenge of bringing fiscal discipline to our state is a massive one. There will be doubters. There will be fierce defenders of the status quo,” Wilson wrote. “There will be overwhelming opposition. But if my wife, Eva, and I want our four daughters to have the same rewarding lives in this state that we have been fortunate enough to have, I don’t have a choice.”

Wilson, who served on President Obama’s auto task force and is from Johnstown, Fulton County, also has a Web site up.

He had been quietly talking to GOP leaders for a month or so.

He’s the first Republican to announce his intentions to run for the office currently held by Democrat Thomas DiNapoli, though Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef has also expressed an interest.

“I’ve never been one to back away from a challenge, and, as Republican Party leaders, neither have you,” his letter reads. “In the coming days and weeks, I will be reaching out to you to ask for your advice and support. I cannot become State Comptroller without your active help.”

Here’s the full letter:

My name is Harry Wilson, and I want you to be among the first to know that I have formed a committee, Taxpayers for Wilson, in preparation to run for New York State Comptroller.

Like you, I’m fed up with the chronic corruption, mismanagement and waste in state government. My history and experience in private sector money management and restructuring have superbly prepared me to battle the entrenched powers in Albany and fight for New York taxpayers. I have spent my career managing money and working to fix troubled companies – companies that suffered from the same mismanagement and bloated costs that our state government does today.

I was raised upstate – in Johnstown, Fulton County. Both my mother and my father’s parents were Greek immigrants. My father served in World War II and worked as a bartender; my mother was a stay-at-home mom and later a sewing machine operator when we needed a second income. I was the first in my immediate family to go to college and worked my way through Harvard and Harvard Business School. While at Harvard I served as President of the Harvard Republican Club – growing it to more than twice the size of the campus Democrats.

After college, I built a successful career in the investment and finance industry. I worked hard, made tough decisions, and developed a reputation as a strong money manager and expert in restructuring and fixing troubled companies. When I dealt with troubled companies, I found, all too often, the same issues: poor to mediocre management; an inability to recognize the depth of their problems or to make the tough decisions necessary to fix them; and excessive spending and bloated costs. One of my chief skills was my ability to objectively assess these problems and work collaboratively with management to drive fundamental change.

Those are skills desperately needed in New York State government today.

Last year, I agreed to serve on the President’s Auto Task Force – the group responsible for the overhaul of General Motors and Chrysler. As a staunch fiscal conservative who believes in free markets, I wanted a say in how the auto bailout plan was administered. If both President Bush and President Obama were going to move forward with it, I wanted to make sure it was done right, and only once. I was the only Republican in the leadership team of the Task Force.

I staunchly opposed the Chrysler bailout. I thought the company had a low probability of turning the corner, so the bailout was an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. I argued that aggressively to my colleagues on the Task Force, but ultimately the President chose to move ahead with the Chrysler deal. We were successful, however, in fundamentally restructuring General Motors – its board, its management, its operations and its labor arrangements. I’m proud of my efforts in that area.

I’m not a professional politician; I am a professional money manager and an expert in fixing broken organizations and problems. And my professional analysis of our state government is bleak:

I believe our state is on the path to fiscal insolvency;

I believe our future is being mortgaged away because our leaders refuse to make tough decisions;

I believe the longer we wait to address these issues, the more pain there will be; and

I believe our tax and regulatory environment, driven in part by out-of-control spending, are driving away jobs and taxpayers and killing this great state.

But I also believe we can turn things around. I know we can. I have done that many times in the private sector.

That same can-do approach can work in the public sector, but only when the public is on board. And last year’s electoral successes in Nassau County and Westchester County – punctuated by Scott Brown’s dramatic win last week in neighboring Massachusetts – prove that the public is standing squarely on the deck.

New York State has kicked its problems down the road once too often, and the people are on to it. They know we can no longer shirk our responsibility to meet the challenges before us. I believe voters will elect leaders this year who will tell them the truth – leaders who can chart a realistic course out of the fiscal quagmire and are tough enough to follow it.

If I am fortunate enough to be elected State Comptroller, I will do exactly that. I will use the Comptroller’s audit power to attack overspending and mismanagement at every turn as a path back to fiscal solvency and, ultimately, a much more vibrant economy.

These changes must occur. As a high-tax state hostile to business, New York is at a competitive disadvantage to far too many other states. Without reducing spending and lowering the income, property and business tax burden, we’ll never be able to attract or retain the businesses we need to rebuild our economy. And without jobs and a path to a better life, the American Dream that has inspired so many of us won’t live on for the next generation of New Yorkers.

The challenge of bringing fiscal discipline to our state is a massive one. There will be doubters. There will be fierce defenders of the status quo. There will be overwhelming opposition. But if my wife, Eva, and I want our four daughters to have the same rewarding lives in this state that we have been fortunate enough to have, I don’t have a choice.

I’ve never been one to back away from a challenge, and, as Republican Party leaders, neither have you.

In the coming days and weeks, I will be reaching out to you to ask for your advice and support. I cannot become State Comptroller without your active help.

If you would like to learn more about my planned candidacy, please visit my website: www.wilsonfornewyork.com

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. I hope that we can work together to save this great state.

Sincerely,

Harry J. Wilson

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