New York, NY – Liz Holtzman Steps Away from AG Contest

New York, NY – Liz Holtzman today announced that she will forgo a race for Attorney General this year in spite of a publicly released poll that showed her as the clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary.

“As I began to campaign around the state, I was heartened by the enthusiasm of voters for my possible candidacy. So many urged me to run and I thank them all,” Holtzman said. “However, in spite of the positive response and encouraging poll numbers, getting in at such a late stage in the process created insuperable obstacles to waging a winning campaign.”

Holtzman served as the city’s only female DA (Brooklyn) and its only female comptroller, and was a U.S. Rep for eight years. (Bio here.) Over a long career in politics, she also lost two bids for U.S. Senate as well as a campaign to regain the controller’s office.

In what I believe was her first (if not one of her first) interviews after releasing a poll showing she would steamroll the competition in the Democratic primary for AG if she were to enter, Holtzman told me last month that she was heartened and encouraged by the survey, but wasn’t taking it as gospel.

She did show up at the DRC straw poll, but asked that her name not be put into contention, as she wasn’t officially a candidate.

Kathleen Rice remains the sole female AG hopeful after decisions by Denise O’Donnell and now Holtzman not to join the fray.

“Well, it was a very hard decision, because the poll showed I could win [and] the response was very encouraging and very warm, but because I got into this at such a late point in the process, it became almost impossible to put together a winning campaign,” Holtzman told me. “I guess I was a little too optimistic that I could do it in such a short time.”

Holtzman said she hasn’t decided about endorsements among the remaining field of AG hopefuls.

For now, she will return to practicing law, she says, although “I want in some way to continue to deal with some of the issues I talked about in the campaign… I’ve never been totally on the sidelines, and I hope that won’t be the case now.”