Elect an entrepreneur

Party: Republican, Independence and Conservative
District: New York, 24th
Incumbent and challenger: Michael Arcuri (D)
richardhanna2008.com
Outcome: Lost

Until this May, it looked like Rep. Michael Arcuri, a former county district attorney who in 2006 won a previously Republican seat, would go unchallenged in the race for New York's 24th district. Then Richard Hanna announced his candidacy. Some commentators think his challenge came too late, but Hanna, 57, says he had been scouting the job out for months.

"The timing was as we planned. The idea that these campaigns go on for eight to 12 months is ridiculous," says the owner of Utica-based Hanna Construction.

Hanna, who says he'd never expected to run for public office, founded the commercial construction firm nearly 30 years ago, growing it to over $8 million in annual revenues. He's running because he wants to rebuild upstate New York.

"I don't want to be part of the last generation to remember how great New York is," he says.

If he is elected, Hanna says his primary focus will be attracting more businesses to his district and bolstering the local economy.

"The first thing I would do is try to create a caucus of New York Congresspeople: a non-partisan coalition whose job is to think about this community," he says. Day-to-day management of Hanna's business would be left in the hands of his sister and nephew, although Hanna suspects that he would miss the life of the business owner.

"I'll miss the gratification of it. I love to look back at the end of the day and see what I've built," he says. "In business, you can measure success in lots of ways. Government outcomes are much less definable and understandable - it takes longer to see the outcome."

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