| Well, it looks like Kirsten Gillibrand won't be the only freshman Rep from New York to draw millionaire Republican challenger. Word has it that local GOoPers in the 19th have convinced Andrew Saul, the Chairman of Cache'Inc., a women's fashion retailer. Saul, much like "Sandy" Treadwell, is expected to largely self finance his campaign against John Hall. The subscription only Roll Call has the scoop:
Millionaires Poised to Take GOP Fight to N.Y. Freshmen
Two Republican multimillionaires are poised to jump into Congressional races in adjoining New York districts where upstart
Democrats ousted GOP incumbents last fall, sources in the Empire State and Washington, D.C., said this week.
...
And Republican leaders believe they have persuaded Andrew Saul, a veteran of the fashion industry and the investment world, to run against Rep. John Hall (D) in the Hudson Valley's 19th district. He may formally enter the race before the end of the month.
Both Saul, the chairman of Caché Inc., the women's fashion manufacturer and retailer, and Treadwell, an heir to the General Electric fortune, are longtime donors to Republican candidates and causes, and both are expected to wage free-spending campaigns to defeat the Democratic freshmen.
"We're confident we can win both seats back," said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Another Republican gets much closer to the truth as I see it:
Another veteran New York GOP strategist predicted that Hall, a former pop star, would be harder to defeat than many Republicans realize because his district is rapidly moving to the left. Both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and now-Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) racked up huge margins in the 19th district in 2006.
"The only way I can see a Republican taking back that seat is if the Republican Party nominates Rudy Giuliani for president," said the strategist, Mike Edelman, who is based in Westchester County. "Otherwise, I think it's gone over to the other side for a long time."
Sounds about right to me. |
