Republican Manny Alicandro launched his campaign for attorney general last week, appearing on Wall Street in front of Federal Hall. Alicandro’s appearance was low wattage, without a backdrop of supporters and a limited showing of party leaders with one Republican county chair, Mike Rendino of the Bronx, and two Conservative Party chairman, Tom Long of Queens and Gerard Kassar of Brooklyn joining him.
The race was transformed hours later as incumbent attorney general Eric Schneiderman suddenly resigned, shortly after The New Yorker reported on multiple allegations of assault by Schneiderman against romantic partners. Schneiderman had been widely viewed as virtually certain to be reelected to a third term, and the Republican Party had found little interest from potential candidates. At his launch Alicandro appeared to likely be the only candidate for the Republican and Conservative Party nominations, but additional prospective candidates have surfaced in the wake of Schneiderman’s resignation.
Alicandro described himself as a lifelong Republican and an enthusiastic supporter of President Trump, saying that “overall I think he’s doing a great job.” Alicandro expressed skepticism on the numerous lawsuits filed by the OAG under Schneiderman against President Trump and the federal government, suggesting that he would end most of those actions. He offered little concern about the Russia investigation, saying that “I’m not really going to get involved in that.”
His professional experience is primarily in financial services regulatory work, currently working for Mana Partners LLC. (Mana Partners describes itself as a trading, technology and asset management firm.”) Alicandro’s bio includes JPMorgan Chase, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, NASDAQ and Merril Lynch as prior employers.
Alicandro estimated that he’ll need to raise approximately $2 million , expressing optimism that he’ll do so.
On policy issues, Alicandro said that supports voter ID laws but does not support legalizing marijuana.
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