“You see, when they fire their cannons at me, they don’t quite hit. They come up just short,” said Mr. DiNapoli, tracing an imaginary shot with his finger from the statehouse to where he stood, an office just out of reach of the governor’s supposed artillery.

Among the incoming ordnance are Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to add a 401K-style sixth tier to the pension fund, a plan to take away some of the comptroller’s ability to audit government contracts, and the governor’s push for greater flexibility over governmental spending.

Despite being a Democrat, Mr. DiNapoli, has been fending off the state’s power class since he became state comptroller five years ago. This was after the then-comptroller, Alan Hevesi, had resigned en route to prison, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer, in the heaviest part of his steam-rolling phase, tried to convince the Legislature that it should abandon its legal prerogative to name a replacement in favor of a candidate recommended by a panel of former comptrollers. The Legislature, never much keen on abandoning its prerogatives, balked and then voted in Mr. DiNapoli.

He had the dual advantages of being close to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and beloved by his fellow lawmakers, who hailed their appointment of him as if it were the election of an assemblyman to pope. “Nice Guy Tom,” as he is known around Albany, was called a role model for their children, “as perfect as God has made anyone” in the words of one lawmaker, “Mr. Clean,” in the words of another.

But Mr. Spitzer was apoplectic.

He visited the districts of even Democratic lawmakers to denounce them before their constituents for going back on their word and naming someone who in his view was manifestly unqualified for the job just because of they liked him. Mr. Spitzer went up to lawmakers and asked them if they would support someone who had “never done this before. Never invested a penny. Never made an asset allocation decision. Don’t know a swap from a derivative,” and allow that person to invest their pension money.

In a press conference immediately after Mr. DiNapoli was named comptroller, the governor called the proceedings “an insider’s game of self-dealing that unfortunately confirms every New Yorker’s worst fears and image of all that goes on in the Legislature of this state.”

Lawmakers, he said, had asked “not who was best qualified among the 19 million New Yorkers for this job, but rather, who among us will receive as a virtual gift this job that we control?”

“There was a lot of hostility early on,” said Mr. DiNapoli, in his typically understated manner. Five years later, he sounded still a bit taken aback by all the furor. He said he had been a big supporter of Mr. Spitzer’s and that there had even been rumors that he would join his administration. He said Mr. Spitzer personally lobbied him to run for an open State Senate seat, but in the end he became a symbol for all that the governor wanted to purge from the Capitol.

“[Mr. Spitzer] was riding high at that point so a lot of the editorials going back that far were against me,” Mr. DiNapoli said.

And they stayed against him when Mr. DiNapoli went before the voters of the state for the first time in 2010. Then, he ran against Harry Wilson, a Republican and wealthy former hedge fund manager who had served on President Obama’s auto industry task force. The comptroller’s office was still being investigated by then Attorney General Cuomo for pay-to-play allegations that occurred under Mr. Hevesi’s watch, and Mr. Cuomo refused to endorse or campaign alongside Mr. DiNapoli. Mr. Wilson outspent Mr. DiNapoli two to one and garnered the endorsement of practically every editorial board in the state.

He was bolstered by his old colleagues in the Legislature—Speaker Silver introduced him to a group of Chinatown retirees as “one of us”—and, mostly, his allies in the labor movement, who contributed a quarter of all his campaign funds. (The average statewide for unions was 8.5 percent of total contributions, according to Bill Mahoney, an analyst at the New York Public Interest Group.)

In a nail-biter of an election night, he declared victory at 2 o’clock in the morning with a four-point lead over Mr. Wilson, and told those still left at the ballroom in the Sheraton in Midtown, “From the bottom of my heart, I thank my brothers and sisters in labor.”

Now, five years after getting plucked from obscurity to be one of only four statewide officials, The Nicest Guy in Albany, someone so conflict-averse that current and former staffers say he eschews staff meetings, finds himself under sustained assault by a governor with stratospheric approval ratings. During a time when Governor Cuomo is manhandling his opposition and has both Democrats and Republicans competing over who is better aligned with his agenda, Mr. DiNapoli finds himself in the unlikely role of Chief Cuomo Speedbump. And he is doing it mostly alone.

At times the animosity has turned ugly and personal. In August, Fred Dicker, the influential New York Post columnist who seems to have a direct line to the Cuomo administration, reported that administration officials referred to Mr. DiNapoli as “CB,” for “Chipmunk Balls,” for “his alleged unwillingness to help the governor battle spendthrift lawmakers.”

Asked his reaction to that column, Mr. DiNapoli pretended for a moment not to know who Mr. Dicker was, and then added, “My first office I ran for was homeroom representative in the seventh grade. I didn’t win that race. I did go on, however, to be elected president of my high school and I ran for the board of education twice. There isn’t anything anybody is saying today that isn’t too different from high school schoolyard comments.”

In an interview, Mr. DiNapoli tried to swat away the onslaught, as if it in fact weren’t so much like incoming cannonballs as like incoming spitballs.

“The tradition of this office is to not be in the partisan battles and to discuss the issues with a more long-term view and try not to get into the day-to-day warfare on particular bills,” he said. “At times the press, or other elected officials are always trying to throw us into that role. I realize there is a fine line between being totally above it all and being relevant, but I try very hard not to act like a member of the State Legislature because I am not.”

Indeed he is not. But then, even lawmakers aren’t acting like lawmakers these days. Democrats and Republicans alike have been embracing the Cuomo agenda, leaving Mr. DiNapoli in the lonely and difficult position of opposing a governor with sky-high approval ratings. Perhaps they’ve read the writing on the walls of the state’s editorial pages. Mr. DiNapoli has been pummelled for being labor’s mouth piece and trying to scare pensioners.

The deep-pocketed business lobby lined up against him too, conducting a sustained assault via press releases on his attempts to slow down Mr. Cuomo’s pension reform efforts.

Mr. DiNapoli responded with uncharacteristic snark: “I haven’t seen such a coordinated attack since Francesca was voted off Survivor,” he said in a statement.

Mr. DiNapoli said that the issues were being distorted in the mind of the public: the problem wasn’t that public-sector workers have secure pensions—it is that they are the only ones who do.

“I am concerned with some of the rhetoric about public employees versus taxpayers,” he said. “Last time I checked, public employees were taxpayers as well. So to kind of do this either/or appeal may have a certain rhetorical appeal, but it is just not accurate.”

The running assumption both within and without the Cuomo administration is far more sinister. Although most statehouse politicos preface their remarks by saying how much they personally like Mr. DiNapoli, they say he is increasingly viewed as a “shill” for the unions and they estimate the percentage of his campaign funds that came from public-sector unions vary from half to three quarters. (In fact, according to Mr. Mahoney of NYPIRG, the figure is somewhere closer to 12 percent.)

“Everyone I talk to says the same thing,” said one Albany lobbyist. “It is inconceivable that he would adopt this position in the face of mild efforts to reform pensions in New York when the pensions aren’t fiscally stable.”

Others suggest that Mr. DiNapoli’s efforts against Mr. Cuomo are even more Machivellian—that he is doing the bidding of Mr. Silver and his old colleagues in the Assembly, taking the fight to the governor because they who are up for re-election in November cannot.

“When he was quiet the complaint was nobody knows him. Well now he is getting noticed and making noise,” said former assemblyman Michael Benjamin. “I assume he wants to run for re-election. I know you are not supposed to make fascist analogies, but Mussolini was popular, but it doesn’t mean his policies were good for the Italian people. Shelly picks his spots. He knows when to thread the needle and when not to. He will oppose Cuomo when the issue is appropriate and the cards are in his favor.”

“The governor is certainly the 800 pound gorilla in the room. We have to give the governor credit for really being the force that really moves state governnment,” said David Weprin, a Queens Assemblyman. “You have the Assembly Democrats that basically have been supportive of state pensions and governmental employees and a lot of those types of issues, and Tom does come out of the Assembly, so that might be some of his background.”

Mr. DiNapoli, though, isn’t beyond leaving a few marks on his own. He noted that he too was elected statewide, that he too represents the state’s 18 million residents, just as Mr. Cuomo does, and that “I am not here because I come from a long line of wealthy people, or politically connected people. My parents were working-class folks on Long Island.” Got that, Son of Mario?

He notes that there is very little he can do to slow down Mr. Cuomo. When the governor recently told Mr. Dicker that Mr. DiNapoli was “handcuffing” him, Mr. DiNapoli wondered if he had to respond with straight face.

“Ultimately I don’t have a vote in any of this. I can’t slow down any of it. I can raise issues in a thoughtful way.”

Indeed, all Mr. DiNapoli really can do is take to the microphones and beat the drum against Mr. Cuomo. It is perhaps the role he least seems to relish.

“I hope people keep in mind that a lot of the frustration about Albany was that it seemed to be focused on the politics of personal destruction, severe partisanship, and personal attack and not dealing thoughtfully with the issues. I hope we don’t revert to that. I am going to do my best not to be drawn into those sorts of battles. That was never my style. Everybody always says ‘Nice Guy Comptroller,’” he said leaning forward. “Well, I am. You don’t say bad things about people, even if you may think them now and then.”

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Harry Wilson

Harry Wilson, the Republican candidate for State Comptroller in 2010, said it's "unlikely" he'll run against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in an interview with the Buffalo News published yesterday.

"She is also a formidable candidate," Mr. Wilson said of Senator Gillibrand. "I think she is underestimated as a candidate."

Mr. Wilson, who narrowly lost to Tom DiNapoli in the comptroller's race, has been widely mentioned as a potential opponent for the Senator this year.According to the Buffalo News, Mr. Wilson cited family obligations and business opportunities as reasons for his reluctance to run.

"I have given it great consideration, but I am very unlikely to do it," he said.

Mr. Wilson has a large personal fortune from his long career as a private equity investor. In September, President Barack Obama appointed him to the Advisory Committee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, an independent federal agency responsible for insuring benefits under private defined benefit pension plans and for allowing individuals to search for lost pensions.

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos and TheLadders.com founder Marc Cenedella have been named as other potential GOP challengers to Senator Gillibrand and both are actively campaigning for the party's nomination. A Siena College poll released Monday showed Senator Gillibrand ahead of Mr. Wilson 63% to 23% and Mr. Maragos 63% to 22%. Mr. Cenedella wasn't included in the poll.

Kirsten Gillibrand (Photo: Wikimedia)

In addition to polling Governor Cuomo, Siena College also surveyed support for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who will be facing reelection in November after winning reelection in 2010 to serve the final two years of Hillary Clinton's term. Although her favorability numbers are just a smidgen under an outright 50% majority, she dominates when paired against her largely unknown Republican opponents, making the task of defeating her a tall order.

The Sienna poll found Senator Gillibrand beating Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos 63% to 22% and former New York Comptroller candidate Harry Wilson 63% to 23%. The poll did not test the CEO of the executive job-hunting site TheLadders.com, Marc Cenedella. Both Mr. Cenedella and Mr. Maragos are campaigning actively for the seat, while Mr. Wilson has only said that he's considering a campaign

Of course, Ms. Gillibrand also benefits from her challengers being almost entirely unknown to voters across the state. Despite his previous run for statewide office in 2010, only 21% of voters currently have any opinion on Mr. Wilson. That's only 1% more voters than those who registered an opinion on Mr. Maragos.

Even the Republican candidates become better known, they will still have a steep hill to climb. Senator Gillibrand easily won reelection in 2010, 63% to 35%, which matches her current support when polled against possible GOP opponents.

View Ms. Gillibrand's poll numbers, past and present, below:

Mr. Wilson would be a very attractive candidate, and after his near-knock-off of incumbent Democratic comptroller Tom DiNapoli in 2010, he is widely considered to be one likely Republicans to end the Democrats 10-year stranglehold on statewide offices.

Last month, we wrote about how even though Republicans think that Ms. Gillibrand could potentially, maybe, be vulnerable to a serious challenge, they are now reconciling themselves to the likelihood that Nassau County comptroller George Maragos will be the eventual nominee. Mr. Maragos has been out campaigning for several months now, is the only candidate out there and is able to partially self-fund.

The only problem with Mr. Maragos is that he is largely unknown statewide, lacks charisma on the stump and has basically been running for this seat despite serving in his current job for less than two years.

Even Democrats close to Ms. Gillibrand acknowledge that Mr. Wilson is probably the most dangerous Republican in the state to the junior senator's chances of winning her first full term.  He has proven statewide appeal. The editorial boards like him, as does Mayor Mike Bloomberg. But few expect him to actually take the jump. For one thing, people close to him say that he hasn't shown much interest in actually serving in the U.S. Senate. For another, he recently took a gig as a  member of the Advisory Committee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, an independent federal agency responsible for insuring benefits under private defined benefit pension plans and for allowing individuals to search for lost pensions.

This job follows a previous appointment as a member of President Obama's automobile industry restructuring task force, which leads us to another problem with a potential Wilson candidacy--his close ties to the current administration in Washington would make him unpalatable to certain segments of the Republican establishment.

The Politicker called around to several Wilson associates, and they said that while they were not surprised that  he is being mentioned as a possible candidate,  he has given no indication that he is considering a run.

Mr. Wilson was appointed by President Obama  for a term that expires in 2014.

"Harry Wilson has a deep knowledge of corporate restructuring, and highly relevant government experience," said PBGC Director Josh Gotbaum.  "This background gives him invaluable insight into the challenges we face at PBGC. I look forward to his wise counsel as a member of the Advisory Committee."

In 2009, Mr. Wilson was a senior member of the US Treasury Department team that oversaw the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler after a career as a private equity investor.

In 2010, he ran a close race against incumbent Democratic comptroller Tom DiNapoli, losing by less than 3 percentage points.