Topic category:  Elections - Politics, Polling, etc.

All three persons competing in the June 26 Republican United States Senate primary--unanimous Conservative Party nominee and former Justice Clarence Thomas law clerk Wendy Long, first-term Congressman Bob Turner and first-term Nassau County Comptroller Bob Maragos--wore dark suits for the debate broadcast on NY1 from 7 PM to 8 PM on Father's Day.

One of them is a woman--Long--and she proceeded to make Father's Day her day.

In her opening statement Long graciously praised her rivals as fine fathers and grandfathers.

Then Long proceeded to demonstrate throughout the debate that by intellect, character, education and experience as well as gender she is much better qualified to effectively contest New York's junior Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, proud winner of independent National Journal's designation as most liberal United States Senator and an ardent feminist who claims that there's a Republican war on women.

While Turner rejected pledges and boasted of being "practical," Long demonstrated that she is principled, enthusiastically embracing constitutional fidelity and conservatism but rejecting both liberal and conservative judicial activism in favor of the rule of law and recognizing the limits of government and the possibilities of freedom.

Maragos appeared to be principled too, but the United States Senate is not the House of Representatives. Unlike Representatives, Senators consider judicial nominations and treaties and, unlike Maragos (and Turner) Long is an experienced attorney, a skilled advocate and a constitutional scholar who will be ready to do that on day one.

Long is not the first woman to receive the New York Conservative Party's U.S. Senate nomination. Barbara Keating got that nomination years ago.

In contrast, the New York Republican Party never has nominated a woman for either U.S. Senator or Governor and Long is offering her fellow Republicans the perfect opportunity to refute the Republican war on women charge by nominating her.

In her closing statement Long noted that both President Barack Obama and Gillibrand avoid “the real issues” – the economy, jobs, debt, taxes, and “overregulation” – by invoking a “phony war on women" and then said, “I think I’m the only person in this race who can take the gender issues off the table -- and refocus this race on jobs and the economy.”

That's true.

And, since Long already is the Conservative Party nominee, she is the one who can make it a one-on-one race with Gillibrand instead of the three-way race that would guarantee Gillibrand's reelection.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.