CityHallNews.com

Throughout his 28 years in office, there is one thing that State Senator Martin Connor has not had to do much of: campaign. Indeed, before this year, the Democrat has faced a primary challenger only twice since he was first elected in 1978 from a district which encompasses lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, and leans heavily Democratic.

This year marks the third, and one which some believe may prove the most serious. Ken Diamondstone, an affordable housing developer, is challenging Connor for his Senate seat and forcing him to run his first primary campaign since 1992. Diamondstone, an active opponent of the death penalty and an environmental advocate, is seeking to oust the incumbent in a campaign he calls “insurgent.”

Diamondstone’s main contention is that Connor has not represented the needs of his district well in Albany.

“He has a record of hurting New York City terribly,” Diamondstone said of Connor. “He has accumulated such a record that he’s no longer capable of representing the district.”

For Connor, the rare primary race comes at a time when he is busy laying the groundwork for a back-room campaign in Albany to regain the position of minority leader that he lost in 2002.

While it remains an open question whether Diamondstone, who is also the candidate of the Working Families Party, poses a real threat to Connor, the senator said he was nevertheless taking the challenge seriously – to some extent.

“Look, anybody who throws nearly $300,000 of his own money into his campaign, I take seriously,” he said, alluding to the roughly $230,000 that Diamondstone has loaned his campaign, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

But Connor said beyond that, he is not too worried.

“I don’t take him seriously in terms of his knowledge of the issues or knowledge of the district,” he said. “But he’s going to have a lot of money to spend.”

Diamondstone, who said his campaign would focus on affordable housing, school funding and job creation, among other issues, attempted to distance himself from the stereotype of a wealthy candidate.

“I’m putting a large amount of my life’s resources on the line, yes,” Diamondstone said. “But I drive around in a 1981 Chrysler with a stick shift – so much for wealth.”

More important, perhaps, is the fact that Diamondstone has outpaced Connor by nearly $100,000 in contributions and overall has about $260,000 on hand, while the Connor campaign is $2,500 in debt.

While noting that he did not believe this would translate into votes, Connor nonetheless indicated he would be stepping up his money raising activities.

Diamondstone stressed that he will focus on the issues. He takes his campaign’s financial state as a good sign of growing support for his campaign.

“I think it’s an indication either that [Connor] has lost the confidence of the voters or that he’s unable to organize,” Diamondstone said, “and that we, on the other hand, have broad support.”

In the six weeks until the Sept. 12 primary, Diamondstone must translate his resources and other activities into favorable name recognition to unseat a longtime senator who has not raised any major outcry from among his constituency, as Democratic consultant Norman Adler explained.

“Unless this guy Diamondstone knows something that I don’t know – which is that the voters are generally dissatisfied with Marty – he’s going to have to run two contests,” Adler said, describing Diamondstone’s dual challenge of convincing voters that Connor must go, and then convincing them that he should take Connor’s place.

“A lot of money makes for a potential race,” Adler added, “but it’s hard to buy name recognition in a down-ticket race.”

Whether a long shot or not, Diamondstone’s campaign has already produced some controversy in local political circles.

In early June, the Lower East Side Democratic club Coalition for a District Alternative (CoDA) voted to endorse Diamondstone. The endorsement was subsequently rescinded over a question about the percentage of votes a candidate was required to receive in order to win endorsement. Over protests from the Diamondstone campaign, a re-vote was conducted, and the club voted to remain neutral in the race.

City Council Member Rosie Mendez, a long-time Connor supporter and CoDA member, said that overall, Connor was unlikely to take anything for granted.

“I’m sure that the senator is taking this challenger seriously,” she said, “just as he would any other challenger.”

For his part, Connor said he was currently staffing two campaign headquarters (one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan), and that raising money would be the goal for the immediate future.

“I’m spending more time raising money now,” he said. “We’re going to put a real campaign on.”