Leecia Eve, Ex-aide to Clinton and Cuomo, enters attorney general race

James, who is African-American, has assembled a formidable coalition of supporters, and is rumored to be Cuomo’s favored candidate.

But Eve, who plans to file her candidacy this week, boasts influential allies of her own. They include Harold M. Ickes, a former deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Ann Lewis, Bill Clinton’s former communications director and a senior adviser on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party, has also thrown his support behind her.

Though Eve has not yet raised any money, a source connected to her campaign said she had hired a fundraiser from the Clinton sphere and would draw heavily upon her connections in the Democratic establishment.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Eve acknowledged the heightened attention to diversity in political leadership but emphasized her own accomplishments. “I am proud to be a woman, and a woman of color in particular,” she said. “But I’m running because I believe I’m the best person to be the attorney general of our state.”

Eve, 53, a graduate of Harvard Law School, has worked for former Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton when they were in the Senate, and also served as a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Cuomo’s deputy economic development secretary.

She campaigned unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2006, when Eliot Spitzer instead backed David A. Paterson as his running mate. (Had Eve prevailed then, she would have replaced Spitzer as governor after his resignation.)

Eve said she planned to attend the state party’s convention this week, where she will seek the requisite 25 percent of delegate votes to ensure a ballot spot for September’s primary. If unsuccessful, she would secure a spot by collecting signatures from enrolled Democrats across the state.

“The level of distrust about government and public service right now is at an all-time high,” she said. “If I don’t get the 25 percent this week, and wind up making my case directly to Democratic voters, that’s really not a bad place to be.”

Smikle, who led the state party until last year, was more explicit about the distrust that might help Eve’s candidacy.

“There has been a lot of concern about the accountability and transparency of the legislative process,” he said, referring to a joint vote by the Legislature to choose an interim attorney general until after November’s election. Political leaders and editorial boards had urged the Legislature to allow Barbara Underwood, the acting attorney general, to finish the term, after speculation that lawmakers sought to elevate James early for political reasons.

Eve applied for the interim position and then withdrew, citing her support for Underwood.

“If the Democrats in the state of New York can’t find a way to get two qualified women on the ballot in a primary,” Smikle said, “that sends a bigger message and indicates a bigger problem than anything else.”

If elected, Eve said, she would continue her predecessor’s aggressive rebuttals to the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, reproductive rights and the environment. She also said she would look closely at Schneiderman’s push to change state law so that the state attorney general could prosecute President Donald Trump’s aides even if he pardoned them.

Lewis said she became acquainted with Eve soon after Sept. 11, 2001, when Eve was advising Hillary Clinton on homeland security. She called Eve a “tower of strength.”

“Anybody watching, listening to Leecia should never doubt her strength and her ability to make things happen,” Lewis said.

In the tangled world of New York politics, as Hillary Clinton’s former advisers were rallying behind Eve, The Times reported that Clinton herself would soon endorse Cuomo, who is said to have pressed James to snub her allies in the Working Families Party in exchange for his support. Cuomo has denied exerting pressure.

Eve said she had not spoken with Cuomo or Clinton.

Abbey Fashouer, a spokeswoman for Cuomo’s re-election campaign, said the governor would make an endorsement for attorney general in the coming days.

If elected, either Eve or James would be the first black woman to hold statewide office in New York.

“When you look at New York’s abysmal turnout over the last several elections,” Smikle said, “to have more African-American women on the ballot actually helps the turnout.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Leecia Eve, Ex-aide to Clinton and Cuomo, enters attorney general race

The seat has been vacant for only two weeks, after allegations of physical abuse spurred the resignation of Eric T. Schneiderman. But Eve may already be playing catch-up against Letitia James, New York City’s public advocate and the only declared Democrat in the race so far.

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