Four days after formally announcing his AG campaign, Sen. Eric Scheiderman has landed his first endorsement from a Democratic county chair.

“Eric Schneiderman has proven that he is a true reformer who will tackle corruption in government and in the private sector,” said Dutchess County Democratic Chairwoman Elisa Sumner in a statement released by the Manhattan lawmaker’s campaign.

“He has worked to transform the criminal justice system, represented public interest clients as a private attorney and led efforts to reform our state government,” Sumner continued. “Dutchess County Democrats can count on Eric Schneiderman to continue and build upon the great work of Andrew Cuomo as Attorney General.”

Schneiderman was also endorsed by state committeewoman Beth Soto, Town of Beekman Democratic Co-Chair Mark Hoops and Democratic Chair of Fishkill Michael Rizzo.

Dutchess County accounts for 1.657 percent of the weighted vote at the Democratic convention. (Less than 24 percent to go, Team Schneiderman!)

Actually, this is more about optics than anything else at the moment. One of Schneiderman’s primary opponents, Eric Dinallo, has the support of 18 county chairs – all of them from upstate, plus Putnam, which is in the lower Hudson Valley – heading into the DRC straw poll on May 1.

Schneiderman skipped the first round of DRC interviews in Schenectady Saturday to formally announce his campaign on the steps of City Hall and collect the endorsements of a host of downstate Democrats, including Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson.  His campaign spokesman says he plans to attend this weekend’s interview session instead.

Scheniderman’s focus to date has been almost entirely in NYC, which is where the bulk of the primary vote originates. Earlier today, the senator announced he has landed the support of SEIU/1199, with which he has had a longstanding relationship.

The powerful health care workers union was also working on Schneiderman’s behalf when he sought to succeed David Paterson as Senate minority leader – a fight he lost to now-Senate President Malcolm Smith.

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