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McAuliffe via Morris: Hillary May Drop Out Of Senate Race
Former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe is reportedly predicting that presumed 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will drop out of her 2006 Senate re-election race if a challenger like Jeanine Pirro forces her to spend campaign cash earmarked for her presidential race."I had a conversation with Terry McAuliffe during the Republican convention," former top Clinton campaign adviser Dick Morris told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night. "And I said, 'Do you think Hillary runs for re-election to the Senate if she has a tough race?'" According to Morris, McAuliffe replied, "No, why should she squander $30 million getting re-elected to a job she doesn't want?" Morris was reacting to the first statewide poll taken since Mrs. Pirro announced her candidacy, which shows support for Mrs. Clinton plummeting by 14 percent. A Marist College survey released Wednesday showed 50 percent of New Yorkers backing Mrs. Clinton over Pirro - a 14-point drop since Marist polled the two candidates in April. The poll also shows that most New Yorkers do not want Hillary to run for president. Morris says Pirro will make that a central issue of her campaign. Already Pirro has asked Hillary to take a pledge to New York voters that she won't use her re-election to the Senate as a steppingstone for a presidential run. Morris said the key to defeating Hillary is for the telegenic Republican to raise early money. "If [Pirro] can raise $3 million or $4 million or $5 million this month and next month and have a strong media buy in upstate New York and close that gap," he told "Hannity & Colmes" - "and Bill and Hillary are looking at polls that show [they're only] 7 or 8 points ahead of Jeanine - and they really are looking at Hillary being under 50 [percent], I bet you that Hillary withdraws from this race." Hillary is already on a tight timetable. Almost as soon as she is re-elected, she will have to announce for president to get her organization together and start raising the big bucks. Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-11 |
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