Prominent DA May Take on Sen. Clinton
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:29 p.m. ET
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Monday she will seek statewide office in 2006, possibly by running for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Pirro told The Associated Press she has not decided which office to seek, but mentioned three possibilities: state attorney general, the Senate, and governor, if Republican George Pataki decides against another term.
Asked if she thought she could beat Clinton, Pirro refused to answer directly but said: ''I have never been afraid of challenges, no matter how daunting.''
A statewide poll earlier this month matching Clinton and Pirro had Clinton leading, 62 percent to 27 percent.
She said she will not run for re-election this year. The decision to leave was difficult, but ''it's time to do more elsewhere,'' Pirro told the AP.
State attorney general Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is stepping down to run for governor in 2006, and Pirro said his job is attractive because ''law enforcement is in my blood.''
Pirro, 53, has won praise in Westchester and beyond for such programs as Internet stings of would-be child molesters and her battle against underage drinking. She is often seen on national television as a commentator on high-profile crimes. In 1997, she made People magazine's ''most beautiful'' list.
Pirro is reportedly a favored candidate of the White House because it's believed a moderate Republican like Pirro, who supports abortion rights, could weaken Clinton in 2006 and damage her presidential chances in 2008.
Pataki said Pirro ''has a bright future ahead of her in whatever she decides to do next.''
Though Pirro has long proven to be popular with voters, in her most recent re-election, in 2001, she won winning by just 6 percentage points. At the time, her husband, Albert Pirro, was in federal prison for tax fraud.
Asked if she thought her husband would be an issue next year, Pirro said she thinks New Yorkers are ''smart enough'' to recognize they are voting for a candidate and not the candidate's family.
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf predicted Pirro would run for attorney general and would be formidable in any campaign.
''She's a woman from downstate New York where the bulk of the vote is, and she is a Catholic in a state where Catholics make up 43 percent of the total turnout in the fall,'' Sheinkopf said. |
