On the eve of the GOP convention at which the fate of his gubernatorial campaign would be (negatively) decided, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy had settled on an LG contender but wouldn’t reveal that person’s identity until after he was – or, as it turned out – wasn’t placed on the ballot.

Multiple sources confirm Levy’s pick was Chris Jacobs, a Republican Buffalo businessman who was former Gov. George Pataki’s last state Secretary of State.

One source with knowledge of Levy’s LG search cautioned that Jacobs was merely on the “short list,” but also did not deny that a press release announcing his selection had been typed up and was ready to go in the event that the party-switching county executive got the 50-percent-plus-one he needed for the Wilson Pakula.

“You can name almost every viable person in the state and (Levy) probably vetted that person,” the source insisted. “Not all of them said ‘no.’”

Many of them did, however, as I reported late last month.

Levy had very much hoped to have a woman running mate, which would have set him apart from both the GOP and Democratic fields. There’s only one female statewide candidate at this point, and that’s Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice, one of the five Democratic AG contenders.

According to my source, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino was also considered, but a Jimino spokesman told CapTon’s Kaitlyn Ross his boss had not spoken to Levy about running statewide.

My source said that Levy was in vetting potential LGs with the assistance of the GOP leaders who were backing his gubernatorial run, explaining:

“We didn’t ourselves to this dance; we couldn’t continue without the invitation, and that’s now been withdrawn… Because of that, the choice of LG was done in the same vein. (Levy) wasn not going to foist somebody on the Republican Party that they didn’t want.”

The Levy camp was very sensitive about not exposing a running mate to unnecessary negative press in the event that the county executive didn’t make the cut at the convention. “There’s no sense in hooking somebody to a losing effort,” my source reasoned.

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