Here she comes, folks. We've talked about Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter before at TAP but it looks like her campaign is now swinging into full gear. Not only that, but she is making some serious hires and staffing a major campaign operation. As Liz Benjamin reports at her new digs, "State of Politics":
Activist Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, who has been mulling a primary challenge to Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., is putting the pieces in place for a full-fledged campaign by hiring a fundraiser.
Lisa Hernandez Gioia confirmed she has been in talks with Pilgrim-Hunter for about a month and has agreed to sign on to help her raise money.
Hernandez Gioia, who is married to former Councilman Eric Gioia, said she believes Pilgrim-Hunter is "great" and has done a lot of good things for the community (she was involved in the effort to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory - a very controversial issue in the Bronx).
Lisa Hernandez Gioia isn't just the wife of Eric Gioia. She is widely considered to be the best fundraiser in the NYC political scene. Considering that we're talking about a challenger to everyone's least favorite Senator and the poster boy of what's wrong with Albany, Desiree is going to raise mondo money. That should give her plenty of dough to hit the Bronx with the usual array of local campaign devices. And she'd also be able to fund these guys:
Pilgrim-Hunter also had discussions with Red Horse Strategies, a consulting firm headed by Doug Forand, Marc Lapidus and Nathan Smith - three DSCC veterans who were involved in the successful 2008 push by the Democrats to take control of the Senate majority from the GOP.
Forand said the firm found Pilgrim-Hunter "very compelling" and believes her challenge to Espada Jr. is "winnable." However, he reluctantly decided in the end that Red Horse couldn't work for her directly due to a possible conflict with another client, LG candidate Bill Samuels.
Samuels is launching an independent expenditure committee that he says will spend $250,000 apiece on two "reform" candidates. I asked Forand if it's possible Pilgrim-Hunter would be one of the two. "Yes," he replied. "It's very possible."
Ok, so she didn't end up working with Red Horse. But the fact that it was discussed shows how serious Desiree is and how seriously the consulting class is taking her bid. And the possible connection to a cool 250k from Bill Samuels' New Rockefeller Institute is a big, big deal. All told, we're looking at a candidate will who raise serious bucks, hire serious consultants, and has the community organizing background necessary to hit the pavement and get the word out.
Good luck Pedro, you're going to need it.
If you're interested, Desiree is officially kicking off her campaign on Saturday. Here are the details:
Desiree Pilgrim will announce her run against Pedro Espada this Saturday 4/17 at 11:00 at the
Bronx Library Center
310 E Kingsbridge Rd
Bronx, NY 10458
By Bus:
BX9 bus to Fordham rd
BX22 bus to Valentine ave
By Train:
D train to Kingsbridge |
