Person announces candidacy for attorney general

Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, March 23, 2006

Carl E. Person, a New York City attorney, has announced that he is running for New York attorney general as a Green Party candidate.

“I seek this office because I understand why it is the second most powerful office in the United States and I am disappointed that Eliot Spitzer is using only 2 percent of the power given to him,” Person said.

“The power of the office comes from a few factors, including that the office is elective,” Person added. “No new statutes are required to do the work; the attorney general requires no agreement with any political bosses to operate. The attorney general renders his own legal opinions, and the attorney general can create its own funding of billions of dollars each year through proper performances of the attorney general’s responsibilities to the public.”

Person said that New York’s current attorney general, Spitzer, has catapulted himself into the apparent role of the next New York governor and an apparent candidate for the U.S. presidency – all through his role at New York attorney general.

“Spitzer is abandoning an office where he could do a great deal of good for New York residents to run for governor, an office that historically has accomplished very little for New Yorkers,” Person said.

Person’s campaign platform to replace Spitzer has 43 main promises, most of which Person said he “can achieve without having to get any legislative enactments or constitutional amendments.” The promises are explained in detail on his Web site, www.lawmall.com/ carlpersonforNYattorneygeneral.

While other candidates running for various elective offices talk about what they would like to do if they can get others to agree, Person said that his “campaign is run on the basis of what he and his staff, using the powers of the attorney general, can do for the voters of New York.”