Golisano Considering Bid for Florida Senate Seat: Report
Recently changed legal residence to save "$13,800 per day in income taxes"
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All Tom Golisano wanted was for someone to pay a little more attention to him.
It's been a week or two since billionaire Tom Golisano's name trickled into many of the stories about the circus in Albany, and the need for attention apparently has him considering a run for the US Senate.
Golisano, who owns homes in both Florida and New York, recently changed his residency to Florida, according to politics1.com. The move saves him "$13,800 per day in income taxes, plus unspecified amounts from lower sales taxes, gasoline taxes, utility taxes, and property taxes," The Jacksonville Observer reported. That's rich.
Just weeks after helping orchestrate the coup in the New York State Senate, Golisano is now contemplating a Democratic run for Florida's vacant slot in the US Senate, the site reported.
Golisano founded a payroll processor company, then bought the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. The Rochester billionaire spent a lot of his money helping state Democrats get elected last fall, then didn't like being ignored by then-Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, so it only made sense to plan the coup.
Golisano has run for governor of New York three times. And while he finished third on each occasion, the percentage of the vote he claimed increased from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2002. In each of the races, he represented the state's Independence Party that he co-founded. He spent a total of $93 million on those campaigns, The Observer reported.
If Golisano does contend for the Florida seat, it's suspected he'd run as either a Democrat or an Independent, according to the Observer.
Posted Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009 - 1:58 AM EST
