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| McAuliffe via Morris: Hillary May Drop Out Of Senate Race |
| 2005-08-11 |
| 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 |
| #8 agreed - 70% or more, and she won't do that. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-11 22:48 |
| #7 The Hildebeast has to run, I think (hell, I'm no political prognosticator), for the reason Raj noted -- getting re-elected is the essential way you show people that you did a good job in office. Do a good job, get re-elected, do a bad job, lose or fold. And let's be clear, Hildebeast's job performance is modestly okay for a freshman Senator. She has no major sponsored legislation, no memorable speech on the Senate floor, nothing to point to to say, "I did that; if it wasn't for me that wouldn't have happened." Part of the problem was that for 4 of her 6 years in office she's in the minority party, but she really didn't jump out to the first rank of opposition senators. She has to run and she has to beat Pirro like a drum, or it's over. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-08-11 22:41 |
| #6 IMO she has to run for Senate in 2006. It seems to me electing someone for President who won one previous election is too thin an experience package when running for the office of Big Kahuna. I believe one four year turn in the office of Governor's preferable, but not as a Senator. /that's also why I think Romney's got 0 chance, but that's another thread... |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-08-11 21:41 |
| #5 Try http://www.jeaninepirro.com/ |
| Posted by: Dick Lynes 2005-08-11 20:09 |
| #4 One muckraker to another signifying nothing. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-11 19:30 |
| #3 she doesn't have the confidence, and her "hiding her real lib self" program won't stick if she can't keep faking it further towards 2008. She's a known (and disliked) quantity |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-11 18:52 |
| #2 Personally I think she'd be making a mistake to run for Senate again. She's got nothing to gain and everything to lose. She should start her Presidential run in 2006 instead of muddying the waters with the Senate run. The only reason to go for Senate is if she doesn't have confidence she'll win the big show. |
| Posted by: RJSchwarz 2005-08-11 17:46 |
| #1 Sounds like a good investment to me. Wonder if Pirro has a donation web site yet? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-11 17:12 |