Long making final statewide push in GOP Senate primary

U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long discusses today's Republican primary race alongside her husband, Arthur Long, outside her local polling site on the Upper East Side. (Jon Lentz)

U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long cast her vote this morning in the three-way Republican primary to determine who will take on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this fall.

After voting on the Upper East Side, Long said she was heading out on whirlwind tour of the state: flying to Buffalo, then driving to Rochester and Syracuse before returning to New York City tonight.

“I think everything is a key battleground,” Long said. “I haven’t given up on any part of the state.”

Long cited the support of the big upstate counties at the Republican convention, and also said she was focusing on Staten Island and was competing in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Yet Long also acknowledged the challenge of running as a political unknown, especially given the shortness of the primary season. She said her strategy had been to reach out to voters in the Republican base at Tea Party meetings and Republican picnics.

“I feel like I’ve gotten to know many of them on a first-name basis,” she said. “That’s how we get started. Once we get to tomorrow, then it’s a bigger group of people we need to get to know.”

Asked if the primary was essentially a two-person race between her and Congressman Bob Turner, Long said there were too many uncertainties and praised both Turner and the third Republican candidate, George Maragos, as “patriots” and “worthy opponents.”