Published: July 30, 2010

The race for state comptroller, which has not gotten a lot of attention from the media or the public, heated up this week with TV attack advertisements from the Republican challenger. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

The attack ads have begun in the race for state comptroller, courtesy of Republican challenger Harry Wilson. This week, he released his first TV spot, portraying incumbent Democrat Thomas DiNapoli as the ultimate Albany insider, who is "under investigation," "totally unqualified" and clueless.

A second ad touts Wilson's own credentials, including his "working-class family," "raised upstate" and claim to be a self-made businessman.

On Friday, DiNapoli fired back at Wilson.

"He’s not a self-made businessman, he’s a hedge-fund guy," said DiNapoli. "You look at what we’re still dealing with, in terms of the collapse of the markets, and how much of that was driven by risky behavior on Wall Street. That’s where he comes from."

The new ads show Wilson, a former hedge-fund manager, is willing to spend his considerable campaign cash to build name recognition. Having pumped $2.3 million of his own money into the race, Wilson enjoys a significant cash advantage over DiNapoli, which is one reason many consider him the Republicans’ best hope of winning statewide office this fall.

DiNapoli, though, has the Democratic establishment on his side, including support from many labor unions.

The incumbent was at City Hall on Friday to pick up the endorsement of Service Employees International Union 32BJ, the state’s largest private-sector union, which represents more than 70,000 building workers.

“He’s done a great job while he’s there. He’s done a great job throughout his career, and we think he’s someone who stands for working people, and we intend to stand with him,” said SIEU 32BJ President Mike Fishman.

DiNapoli, for his part, says he intends not to go negative and instead emphasizes his record as the state’s chief fiscal officer.

"Looking for ways to help government spend taxpayer dollars with more accountability, more transparency, and more efficiency, that’s what we’ve been doing through our audits," said the incumbent. "We’ve identified hundreds of millions of dollars of opportunities to do things more efficiently, to save money for taxpayers.”

DiNapoli will launch his own TV ads but has yet to determine a timetable.