Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s campaign has deployed his hometown county GOP chairman, John Jay LaValle, to push back against shots fired over the past 24 hours by state Democratic Party Executive Director Charlie King and “boss” (as per Team Levy) Jay Jacobs.

LaValle accused Jacobs, who is also the Nassau County Democratic chairman, of presiding over “one of the worst abusers in the history pay-to-play during the Suozzi administration; a simple review of his filings would prove this.” (No supporting documentation was provided).

“Clearly this was a preemptive strike by the Democrat Bosses, as they aim to distract voters from Andrew Cuomo’s massive special interest war chest,” LaValle continued.

“The Democrats should be concerned, and it is my hope that Chairman Jacobs holds his candidates to the same standards with which he attacks. One can only assume that this maneuver will end metaphorically…’live by the sword, die by the sword.’”

“There will be tremendous scrutiny upon the contributions accepted by the Attorney General. The public will be astonished at the amount of money collected from the very industries that Mr. Cuomo regulates. I am certain that in the spirit of ethics and command of hired moral ground, Democrat Boss Jacobs will demand that Mr. Cuomo return all of the conflicting contributions that he has amassed to date.”

“I look forward to that press conference and would be glad to join him, if invited!”

“Clearly the Democrats are petrified of a Levy candidacy because he is the only candidate with the ability to beat Andrew Cuomo – and that is why they attacked him yesterday.”

Way to get all Biblical on the Democrats’ butts, chairman!

Seriously, I see two things of note here:

1) I don’t believe Levy has held a campaign-related press conference for several days – basically since the news cycle started turning on him regarding Ethan Ellner. (Newsday has yet another story that I missed in the round-up earlier). The county executive is scheduled to launch an upstate swing today.

2) The fact that LaValle, who is also Rick Lazio’s home county chairman and was the first to endorse the former congressman’s gubernatorial run, is now stepping up to protect Levy so publicly demonstrates just how all-in he plans to be when it comes to the Democrat-turned-Republican county executive – both this fall and, potentially, in 2011 if Levy’s current statewide experience fails and he seeks re-election.

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