Party. Most of New York State's most successful Republican politicians, however, such as Rockefeller, George Pataki, Thomas Dewey, Fiorello La Guardia, Jacob Javits and Alfonse D'Amato, came from downstate. Most upstate Republicans are politically unacceptable to even downstate Republican voters, and most of the party's financial backers are based downstate. That was a key factor in forcing the Buffalo politician Chris Collins out of a potential run for governor in 2010. Nevertheless, Republican attempts upstate to court votes by openly appealing to suspicion of New York City have usually backfired. In 1998, the incumbent and Long Island native Republican Senator Al D'Amato's Senate campaign ran television ads in some upstate markets attempting to link his opponent, Charles Schumer, to a flock of hungry sharks that were released from New York City to fleece upstate. Schumer went on to win the election and did well in upstate areas. Politicians based upstate rarely win elections for governor or senator, but some have been elected to other lesser state-wide offices, such as lieutenant governor (Stan Lundine, Maryanne Krupsak, Mary Donohue, Robert Duffy and Kathy Hochul for instance), comptroller (Edward Regan) and attorney general (Dennis Vacco). The sharp differences in ideology have historically fueled many political struggles by upstate conservatives with largely downstate-based Democrats in the New York Legislature, but the feuds quite often tend to be more on regional lines than on party lines. The most recent major examples were the failed attempt by the Syracuse-area assemblyman Michael Bragman, the majority leader of that body, to seize control of the downstate-dominated state Democratic Party in 2000. That was immediately followed by a strong retaliatory backlash against all upstate politicians in state government and the attempt by both Republicans and Democrats to cater to upstate voters by promising to disband the New York State Thruway, whose toll portions are entirely upstate. Both candidates in the 2006 gubernatorial election (Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso) pledged to eliminate the tolls. However, so far, only an eight-mile stretch of I-190 in downtown Buffalo, which had been collecting tolls so that I-84 downstate would remain a free highway, has been made toll-free. In fact, the thruway authority has steadily increased tolls annually since 2006. Critics upstate feel that it is unlikely that either party would genuinely be willing to give up such a significant source of revenue, despite promises to the contrary, particularly since it that