Rep. Steve Israel has told fellow members of New York's congressional delegation that he will challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a Democratic primary in 2010, congressional aides said Monday.
"An announcement is imminent," said one aide to a Democratic member of the New York delegation.
Israel's spokeswoman said there are no plans for such an announcement this week. "The only announcement the congressman has planned for this week is about a Smart Grid proposal for Long Island," Lindsay Hamilton said in an e-mail.
Israel, a 50-year-old in his 5th term from Long Island's 2nd District, represents the most serious threat thus far to Gillibrand, who was appointed to the seat by New York Gov. David Paterson earlier this year when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (2001-2009) became secretary of State. Israel also was in the running for the appointment.
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The problem for progressives should be apparent; Congressman Israel is not the type of primary challenge we'd want to Senator Gillibrand.
First, I'm not quite certain that we even need a primary challenge to our junior Senator. She's tacked to the left in the past few months, which was logical for someone representing the state of New York compared to the 20th District. Today she announced support for the public option in health care reform. She's also moderated her stance on immigration. Quite frankly, Senator Gillibrand has moved to a moderate-left position and seems to be in the mainstream of New York.
Meanwhile, I don't see Congressman Israel as substantially different than Senator Gillibrand. In fact one could argue he's to her right on the spectrum.
But Israel was, like Gillibrand, a rare northeastern member of the fiscally moderate Blue Dog Coalition until last election cycle and backed President George W. Bush 's tax cuts in 2001. He voted for the Republican-written prescription-drug bill on its first trip through the House in 2003 but opposed the law's final passage later that year.
Israel supported Bush's position 48 percent of the time in 2001, a figure that dropped to 4 percent in 2007 before moving back up to 15 percent in 2008. His party unity scores-the rate at which he backed the Democratic position on votes that split the parties-rose steadily from 82 percent in 2001 to 99 percent in 2008.
Gillibrand, who served just two years in the House, supported Bush 6 percent of the time in 2007 and 22 percent of the time in 2008. Her party unity scores were 90 percent in 2007 and 91 percent in 2008.
The goal for progressives was to challenge Senator Gillibrand from the left and either pull her further left or supplant her with an accurate representation of those views. Now, any move we make will be in competition with a challenge to Senator Gillibrand's right.
In the end, this challenge might manifest itself geographically instead of ideologically.
What do you think? |
