Sean Coffey, 54, is hoping to replace Andrew Cuomo as New York State Attorney General.

Coffey, a Democrat, is in a five-horse primary race against fellow Irish-American and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and three others – State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, State Senator Eric Schneiderman, and former New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo. The primary is set for Tuesday September 14.

However, Coffey feels "the state will be a much better place if we have an Irish-American politician in the mix," and he said he is the right Irish American to fill Cuomo's shoes.

Coffey, who is married to Anne Churchill and father of Kate, 18, Cameron, 16 and Conor, 13, spent most of his summers as a teenager in Ireland.

His father, John, a union carpenter, was from County Kerry, and his mother, Mary, was a homemaker originally from County Cork.

"I'm the product of a mixed marriage," Coffey jokes while taking time out of his hectic schedule on Friday to speak with the Irish Voice.

"I grew up in a town in Long Island that had crime issues, so my parents would send me back to County Cork, to Courtmacsherry, to the farm my mom was born and raised on from the time I turned nine until I was 16," shared Coffey, who now resides in Bronxville, New York.

"I spent three months every summer on the farm with my mom's youngest brother who was closest to me in age. I learned to milk cows, drive tractors, and castrate boniffs.

"When I give my stump speech I say which one of these will come in handy if I get to Albany," he laughs.

Realizing the importance and the positive impact of spending time with relatives in Ireland, Coffey and his wife decided when the children were young to send them to Ireland whenever possible.

"Kate goes every summer, and we think the time my children have spent in Ireland is a significant reason they are as sweet and well grounded as they are because they are fortunate to be with people who are well grounded, sweet, kind, intelligent and loving in Ireland. It gives them a real good perspective on what is important in life," he said,

Coffey was content speaking about his love for Ireland and fondly reminisced of his Irish upbringing in New York, but bigger questions awaited him.

Like current Attorney General Cuomo and his predecessor Eliot Spitzer, is Coffey running for the position to use it as a stepping stone for the governor's throne?

"No," he answers very firmly. "I'm running for attorney general and that's that.

"I've made it very, very clear from the very beginning that I will never run for governor.

"I'm a lawyer and I'm running to become New York's lawyer. At this point in New York State's history I think it is a benefit to have someone who is focused exclusively on doing the legal work of New Yorkers, so I don't want people thinking anything I'm doing is laying a foundation for some other political run."

If elected, Coffey said he would favorably carry on the "great work" accomplished by Cuomo.

"This is not a race about fixing a broken office, it's about who is going to carry on the tradition of this office," he states clearly.

Coffey said he is running to accomplish three key goals. He hopes to be a catalyst for reform in Albany because "I think our state office is broken and I can help fix it."

He also plans to "keep an eye" on Wall Street. "Wall Street is our most important industry in New York, but the best way to keep it growing, creating jobs and paying taxes is to keep it honest and I know how to do that."

His third goal is to be "the people's lawyer."

"There are a lot of very, very important assignments that the attorney general carries out, from protecting the environment to protecting workers' rights to consumer protection, and I am first and foremost a very experienced lawyer," he said.

"I'm the only one who has tried cases as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer and as a plaintiff's lawyer, and I think it's fair to say I have the broadest legal experience of any of the people running."

Although the job of attorney general has limited criminal jurisdiction, Coffey said he would like to see the attorney general's office have authority to try public corruption cases.

"The number one problem facing our state is the fact that our machinery of state government is broken. I want to be the mechanic who fixes it, and part of that is to have the power to go after corrupt officials, remove them, send them to jail where appropriate and ensure that the business of the people of New York is first and foremost in the minds of our public officials," said Coffey confidently.

On current issues dominating New York circles at the moment, Coffey has his say.

Does he feel a mosque should be built near Ground Zero? "As someone who grew up in an immigrant family and understood firsthand how special America is, and as someone who served for years in a Navy uniform and prepared to die for my country, I think that freedom of religion is an incredibly important right.

"If I could snap my fingers and move the mosque 10 blocks away I would do it in order to soothe the hurt feelings of the families which I completely understand," said Coffey, who was selected by the Navy to serve as the personal military assistant to Vice President George H.W. Bush.

But he added that not allowing the mosque is not the America he knows.

"The true test of our commitment to the wonderful principle in our Constitution is when it's hard to stand by it. And this is a hard one, but I come down on the view that if it's legitimate and the money is clean and has passed all the zoning then it ought to be allowed," he said.

Coffey said he feels President Obama is doing a "very good job."

"Here is a fella that the car – that is the United States of America – was going over the cliff. He grabbed the bumper and grabbed the tree and the car is hanging over the edge, and he is trying to pull it back. Republicans are saying, 'You are not cleaning up our mess fast enough,'" Coffey says.

"He was handed a terrible mess and he has prioritized, and he has passed some phenomenal legalization from health care to financial reform to the stimulus package, which I think prevented us from going into a depression," said Coffey.

What sets Coffey apart from his opponents in the race?

"I think the biggest difference between me and all my opponents is that I'm not a politician looking to rotate from one seat to another. This is District Attorney Rice's third campaign in five years. She has not ruled out a run for governor. She is a professional politician," he said.

Coffey's history as a lawyer and D.A., he said, also stands to him for this job. After graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Coffey was sworn in as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1991, where he prosecuted more than 60 members of the "48 Hours" heroin distribution organization, and oversaw the FBI's "Operation Drex Paper," dismantling a nationwide stolen car network.

His return to private legal practice in 2005 saw him earn the name "Wall Street's New Nemesis." He assisted in recovering over $6 billion for thousands of investors.

"I've dealt with Wall Street. I have been a prosecutor with a very prestigious office – the U.S. Attorney's Office for Manhattan – but I was also partner at a corporate firm and represented companies, and more recently I've been a plaintiff's lawyer who was very successful in the court room taking on Wall Street," he explained.

Coffey, who helped pay for his education in parochial school by following in his father's footsteps by working as a carpenter's apprentice, is not afraid of rolling up his sleeves and getting the job done.

"My father came here with a fourth grade education and my mother with a 10th grade education, and they sent seven kids to college. I'm a very, very proud Irish American. I'm a Kennedy Democrat, and I feel very good about winning," Coffey said.

"I hope all the Irish-American Democrats will come out and vote for me on September 14. They will not be disappointed because I'll go to fight for them and every other New Yorker every day."