| The CQ Politics story, headlined "New York Throwdown: Maloney to Challenge Gillibrand in Senate Primary," cites several sources, most anonymous, that support the headline.
Here's a taste:
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney plans to announce a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on her Web site Thursday morning, according to two sources including a member of New York's congressional delegation.
Maloney disputed that characterization in a brief hallway interview.
"Where did you get that from?" she asked. "It's not true."
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The decision to run sets up what could be an expensive primary.
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That is something national Democrats have tried to avoid, with New York's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez and the White House all taking pains to clear Gillibrand's path to the nomination.
The story quotes an anonymous Democratic operative deriding Maloney as posing no "real threat," and Rep. Jerry Nadler, evidently a Maloney supporter, saying, "It's a very real fight. Carolyn's a strong candidate and Kirsten hasn't yet established herself."
Over at Swing State Project, DavidNYC flagged the CQ Politics story, and wrote that it does not reflect well on Maloney:
So CQ has knowledgeable, high-level sources who say that Maloney is preparing a run, but Maloney denies it to their faces? Perhaps she was just disputing CQ's claims about the "timing or venue," as they say, but even so, this is kind of embarrassing.
If you're going to take on someone with as much grit, fundraising prowess, and establishment backing as Kirsten Gillibrand, faltering out the gate like this is seriously small-time. I guess we'll find out the truth tomorrow, but still ... weak.
The City Hall story is very inside baseball, touting Maloney's hiring of Cindy Darrison to raise money and Josh Isay to do communications as a sure sign that Maloney is in.
Darrison is known for being former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's chief fund-raiser and for more recently leaving current Gov. David Paterson to work for his possible primary challenger Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Isay worked on Caroline Kennedy's "campaign" for the Senate appointment, Joe LIEberman in 2006, and for Republican billionaire NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Noting Isay's work on LIEberman's lying ads, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake called Maloney's new hire "a political fixer whose specialty is deceiving voters" back when CK hired him.
The die is apparently cast, and Maloney will challenge Gillibrand in a primary that will cost $20 million or so.
That's one reason her candidacy is not a good idea -- that's a substantial amount that will not be used to defeat Republicans next year, in New York and across the country.
Another reason is that Maloney, if she finally pulls the trigger, will lose substantial seniority in the House.
Maloney is in her ninth term representing a safe district that is mostly the Upper East Side of Manhattan with a bit of nearby Queens.
She is currently chair of the Joint Economic Committee and of the Financial Institution and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.
A third is that Maloney is 61, while Gillibrand is 42, so Gillibrand is in much better position (aside from being in the Senate already) to move into senior Senate leadership positions that will benefit the entire state.
Since the policy differences between the two are negligible, New York would obviously be better served by Maloney staying in the House, and Gillibrand continuing a long march to a Senate committee chair that may take 20 years. |
