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This belongs to you. Take it back...
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Kirsten Gillibrand 
Fri Mar 12, 2010 at 22:14:02 PM EST
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The New York Times posted a story today that explores every angle of Mayor Mike Bloomberg's antipathy to the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand except one.
Nowhere does the story mention Caroline Kennedy, Bloomberg's very public candidate for the Senate appointment last January.
But there's lots of good stuff in there about how the richest and most powerful person in New York City has been not so quietly campaigning against Gillibrand for more than a year.
Details, below.
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Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 20:43:32 PM EST
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The search for a Republican challenger to the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who is known beyond his family/friends has apparently found Dan Senor, according to the New York Times.
Senor is best known as the neocon flack who worked for the Bush/Cheney campaign at the Coalition Provisional Authority in the war's first year.
In keeping with its serial promotion of Gillibrand opponents, the Times spends less than a sentence on Senor in Iraq -- most of the story is about all the GOP bigwigs (Rudy 9/11, John Cornyn, Lindsay Graham, etc.) who are desperate for someone other than the two no-names who've announced so far.
Desperate indeed, to support a guy with Senor's risky record just because he's been on Fox News a lot and can raise the requisite money from the Bush/neocon network.
Details, below.
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 20:53:03 PM EST
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Helicopter Harry is out. And now so is Mort Zuckerman.
The field in the battle for a New York Senate seat became a little clearer Tuesday when Mortimer B. Zuckerman announced he would not join the race.
Mr. Zuckerman, chairman and publisher of the Daily News, said personal and professional reasons were behind his decision not to challenge Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
"I was encouraged by many major political figures in New York to look closely at running for Senate," Mr. Zuckerman said.
"However, at this time, it is very difficult to see how I can devote the necessary time to either a campaign, or to working in Washington, if I were to win."
OK. Duly noted.
Next!
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 19:55:19 PM EST
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Helicopter Harry, in his own words:
Why I'm Not Running for the Senate
WHEN it was reported two months ago that I was thinking seriously about running for the United States Senate from New York, Democratic Party insiders started their own campaign to bully me out of the race - just as they had done with Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Steve Israel and others.
But as I traveled around New York, I began to understand why the party bosses felt the need to use such heavy-handed tactics: They're nervous. New Yorkers are clamoring for change. Our political system - so bogged down in partisan fighting - is sapping the morale of New Yorkers and preventing government at every level from fulfilling its duty.
The cruel twist, of course, is that the party bosses who tried to intimidate me so that I wouldn't even think about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had been appointed to the seat by Gov. David A. Paterson, are the same people responsible for putting Democratic control of the Senate at risk.
These are tough times, and the New Yorkers I have met are facing economic adversity with grace and dignity. They worry about their future, care about their neighbors and hope this storm will pass so they can focus on better days ahead. And yet too few in the Democratic Party are really willing to break with orthodoxy to meet these challenges. We need leaders as good as the people they represent - leaders focused on creating jobs, keeping taxes low, helping small businesses and restoring faith in government.
Voting for health care legislation that imposes billions in new taxes on New Yorkers and restricts federal financing for abortions is not good for the people of this state. Voting against critical funds necessary to ensure the survival of the financial services industry - the economic backbone of this state - is not good for the people of New York.
If you must, you can read the rest here.
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 19:39:51 PM EST
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Murdoch Post:
Tennessee transplant and former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has decided not to challenge unelected incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand for her US Senate seat, sources said tonight.
"I heard from Harold Ford and he has decided not to run," said Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the Kings County Democratic chairman who had strongly indicated a willingness to back Ford.
"After giving it considerable thought and talking it over with his wife, he reached the conclusion that he would not be running, although he said he would like to remain active in the Democratic Party here," Lopez continued.
And just when we were starting to have fun.
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Mon Mar 01, 2010 at 19:37:00 PM EST
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Try to contain your shock. Harold Ford's bizarre, performance art-esque campaign for a US Senate seat is over.
Under intense pressure from Democratic Party officials, Harold E. Ford Jr., the former Tennessee congressman, has decided not to challenge Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand in the primary this fall, according to two people told of his plans.
He has told friends that, while he is convinced he could prevail against Ms. Gillibrand, he feared the winner of the primary would have little money and remain highly vulnerable to a well-financed Republican challenger at a time when the Democratic party controls the Senate by a slim majority.
"I've examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary - a primary where the winner emerges weak-ened and the Republican strengthened," Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times
I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans."
And that's that.
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Thu Feb 25, 2010 at 01:31:07 AM EST
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So potential Senate candidate from New York state Harold Ford spoke to the LGBT group, Stonewall Democrats at New York City's GBLT Community Center in Greenwich Village. If you're thinking, "Gosh, that has FAIL written all over it!" You're right!
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 13:52:54 PM EST
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 Despite disasterous polling, Former Tennessee Representative Harold Ford continues his ill-advised, non-campaign to usurp Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's seat in the US Senate. In a laughable media rollout, the career politician has discussed his love of weekly pedicures, daily breakfasts at the Park Regency Hotel, helicopter rides over the state, and accused Gillibrand of being a DC insider. But this may well take the hubris cake. He will be speaking at a gathering of the Stonewall Democrats, and LGBT chapter of the Democratic machine, at New York City's Gay Community Center.
Gay activists are planning an appropriate welcome for Ford. More after the fold.
Cross-posted at Daily Kos.
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 at 14:11:36 PM EST
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Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency's campaign against the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand came into closer focus yesterday -- he's anti-Obama, and pretty nasty about it.
Ford, via his LIEberman flack Tammy "Bite me" Sun attacked Gillibrand for having Obama campaign manager David Plouffe appear at a breakfast fund-raiser Monday.
Ford/Sun's vituperative language and habitual serial lying are in full display, below.
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 at 10:25:22 AM EST
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Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency has been campaigning against the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for six weeks now, and he remains a pathetic loser in the Siena poll.
According to the new poll, Gillibrand leads Ford by 42-16, slightly better than the 41-17 margin in last month's poll.
Ford floundering, below.
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Sun Feb 21, 2010 at 11:02:24 AM EST
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Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency, who has been campaigning against the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for six weeks now, affects to be a courtly Southern gentleman.
And, when things are going well for him, he can maintain that pose, especially around a TV camera.
But when things are not going well, like with his Bloomberg-backed campaign against Gillibrand, or when there's no camera or microphone around, he can be quite nasty.
The real Harold Ford, below.
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Wed Feb 17, 2010 at 22:03:26 PM EST
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"Southern voters are interested in solutions," said Harold Ford Jr. in 2003. "They can spot a fake." Perhaps this explains Ford's subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate.
--Jonathan Chait, Nowhere Man, The vain search for Harold Ford's principles.
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Sun Feb 14, 2010 at 19:57:37 PM EST
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Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency will be giving the keynote address to the 39th annual Legislative Conference of the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators tonight.
He would be wise not to give a campaign speech about how NY needs an "independent Democrat" like him in the U.S. Senate, instead of a real Democrat like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Gillibrand, unlike Ford, has been at the conference since early Saturday. This afternoon she hosted a brunch attended by about 400 people, gave a strong speech, and stayed around for almost an hour for photographs with supporters.
Details, below.
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Sat Feb 13, 2010 at 09:14:35 AM EST
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Gawker has a story up detailing the potential "interest" of Mort Zuckerman, billionaire publisher of the NY Daily News in challenging Senator Kirsten Gillibrand From the NY Times:
Mr. Zuckerman regards Ms. Gillibrand as vulnerable to a challenge and is hoping that, at a time of economic tumult and political unrest, his background as an outsider to government, and his record as a business executive, will appeal to the state's electorate, these people said.
Of course, not for him to go through the messy primary process. If he runs, he'll run as a Republican.
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Fri Feb 12, 2010 at 12:12:25 PM EST
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Earlier this week, John Cook of Gawker asked the campaign of Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency whether Ford, despite living in Manhattan since 2007, had ever filed a state tax return.
It took a few days, but Ford's LIEberman flack Tammy Sun got back to Cook with the shocking answer -- "No."
Ford evidently claimed to work entirely out of Merrill Lynch's office in Nashville (where there is no income tax), and arranged to have his untold multi-million dollars in salary and bonuses paid there.
Details, below.
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Thu Feb 11, 2010 at 22:11:56 PM EST
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The campaign of Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency to replace the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will not end when he loses the Democratic primary in September.
Ford is clearly planning to run on the Independence Party line in November, as an "independent Democrat," like his good friend Joe LIEberman.
Today Ford met with one of the Independence Party's top fixers in Buffalo, but that was just a courtesy call, since his No. 1 backer, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has already ensured that his Senate candidate will be on the November ballot.
Details, below.
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Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 22:13:33 PM EST
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Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has lately emerged from his time-with-the-family decent interval with online and cable TV commentary about the need for better regulation of Wall Street.
And Spitzer is also dropping hints that he may join Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency in challenging the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand this year.
According to Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast, "Spitzer is making fresh noises about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in New York."
Grove notes that Spitzer is trying to exorcise his prostitute-ridden past by talking somewhat openly about it in a Big Think interview, and that his media profile rose with his appearance this week on The Colbert Report.
Details, below.
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Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 14:12:19 PM EST
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Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency has, allegedly, only hired flacks so far in his Bloomberg-sponsored and funded campaign to unseat the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Davidson Goldin is the basic campaign flack, hurling insults at Gillibrand at every opportunity, and Tammy Sun will be filling in for him for two weeks while he's honeymooning, and may work for the campaign once it staffs up.
Goldin has been a nasty attack-dog flack from Day 1, and a fibber several times. He also flacked for state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who will soon be booted from the Senate for a vicious assault on a woman friend.
Sun was press secretary for Joe LIEberman in his 2006 general election campaign, when LIEberman well earned having the first three letters of his name capitalized.
Details, below.
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Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 14:47:41 PM EST
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Bruce Blakeman, the only announced Republican challenger to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, joined other ambitious Republicans in speaking before the Conservative Party's annual conference Sunday and Monday in Albany.
Evidently, only one newspaper covered his speech, and unfortunately it's stupid-paywall Newsday, who presumably only cared because Blakeman is from Long Island.
The few sentences you can read at Newsday are a straight-forward report, but another attendee, former Schenectady Gazette reporter Bob Conner of Planet Albany, was more critical.
A lot more critical, as you'll see below.
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Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 08:42:24 AM EST
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Crossposted from Videocafe/Crooks and Liars
The early reviews are in and they're not pretty. From the NY Daily News:
A week after getting thrashed by Stephen Colbert as a flip-flopper, potential Senate candidate Harold Ford said he wanted to see if the comedian "wants to beat me up in person."
Ford got his answer Monday night when Colbert did exactly that on "The Colbert Report."
"Evidently, six minutes at my interview table counts as New York State residency," Colbert said to the former Tennessee congressman, who registered to vote here last fall.
It didn't get any better for Ford. Colbert began by pressing him on abortion, noting that in 2006, Ford called himself "pro-life" but now insists he has always been pro-choice.
As he has before, Ford insisted that by "pro-life" he meant he supported education, veterans benefits and other fundamental issues.
Next up? Gay marriage. Colbert pointed out that while Ford opposed the rite while running in Tennessee, he now supports it.
"Again, I think this is a great thing," Colbert said. "Because you're saying these things in the media capital of the world - New York City, gotcha-town. And you're saying come and gotcha me."
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