Upstate Democrat Enters Senate Race In Rochester (Updated)
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- June
- 2
Former Bausch & Lomb executive David Nachbar entered the 55th state Senate race against Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton, Monroe County, this morning.
Nachbar, who registered as a Democrat in recent years as he contemplated runs for Congress in 2006 and this year, announced his candidacy with Monroe County Democrats.
Updated: Monroe County Democrats called to say that Nachbar has never been a Republicans, but was a independent.
“I’m running for Senate because New York State’s taxpayers are getting crushed by high taxes, job losses and the rising cost of living,” Nachbar said in a statement. “We need real change in how Albany does business and as a businessperson, I know what it takes to create jobs and I understand the importance of sticking to the bottom line.”
Nachbar, who is independently wealthy, has been toying with running for office for several years and was also rumored as a possible challenger to Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks last year. But he never ran amid the sale of B&L.
But Nachbar left the company earlier this year. Nachbar has been willing to spend some of his one money on his candidacy, but it’s unclear how much he’ll put into this race.
Still, Nachbar faces an uphill battle against the popular Alesi, who was first elected in 1996 and serves a district with a Republican majority.
The race, though, gives Democrats another viable candidate in Monroe County, where former Democratic Sen. Richard Dollinger is challenging Sen. Joseph Robach.
This entry was posted
on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
