Government

Pinot & politics: GOP gubernatorial hopeful coming to local winery

WESTCHESTER COUNTY IMAGE | Westchester County Executive Rob Asporino.
WESTCHESTER COUNTY IMAGE | Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

So, you wanna be governor?

Apparently, that road goes through the North Fork.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who was reelected to that position in November and who has reportedly expressed an interest in seeking the Republican nod for governor in 2014, has scheduled a fundraiser at Lieb Cellars on Oregon Road in Cutchogue for Saturday at 2 p.m.

Among those hosting the event are New York State Republican Committee Chairman Edward Cox and Suffolk County Republican Chairman John Jay LaValle.

And the price?

One thousand dollars to be a “Gold Sponsor,” $500 for a “Silver Sponsor” and $250 per person for everybody else, according to the invitations sent out recently.

Mr. Astorino has been Westchester County Executive since 2010 and before that, he was involved in radio, as one of the founders of 1050 AM ESPN radio in New York, an executive producer of the Michael Kay Show on that channel, and as a host and program director on SIRIUS Satelitte Radio’s Catholic Channel.

Potential Gubernatorial candidates are nothing new to the North Fork.

Conservative Carl Paladino, who also has reportedly shown interest in running for governor in 2014, made a stop at a Suffolk 9-12 Project meeting at the Riverhead’s Elk’s Lodge a week before his upset win in the 2010 Republican primary for Governor, and Democrat Eliot Spitzer met with Riverhead Democratics in 2003 at the Calverton home of Art Binder prior to announcing his intentions to run for governor in 2006.