Gloves off in Kirsten Gillibrand vs. Harold Ford fight
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is finally heeding New York Democrats’ advice that she get tough with Harold Ford Jr. — slamming the former Memphis congressman as an anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant tool of Wall Street money lords.
The problem for Gillibrand: Ford is embracing New York’s slappy-face politics faster than she can generate the comebacks.
On Monday, Ford dismissed Gillibrand as a party-controlled “parakeet.”
For good measure, his spokesman told POLITICO that Gillibrand is a “desperate liar.”
Gillibrand, Gov. David Paterson’s appointment to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacant Senate seat, has been thrown on the defensive by an aggressive challenger who has embraced New York’s brawling Democratic culture, if not its liberal politics.
The onetime Albany-area congresswoman has begun to mix it up in recent days, but her penchant for measured responses and attacking Ford through proxies hasn’t impressed many in a tabloid media market that rewards the brash and punishes the bashful.
Several Democratic sources told POLITICO that Gillibrand and her team get it — and are now seeking to augment her communications team with a consultant who will more aggressively target Ford, who spent Monday blasting away at the senator and her patron Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on New York Post columnist Fred Dicker’s radio show.
“One could argue that, to date, she had not been sufficiently aggressive in the New York media market, and that has backfired,” said Hank Scheinkopf, a veteran Democratic operative who has worked for many of the state’s elected officials.
“She cannot hide behind cutout characters. ... She’s going to have to get past him by getting past him,” he said.
“I’ve noticed a change in tenor,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), adding, “I think she should be tougher with him, and I think that she has been.”
“She needs more leg breakers,” said another longtime operative.
Gillibrand’s allies in New York and Washington said it’s now time for her to show her political independence from Schumer and President Barack Obama — who have tried to clear the field for her.
So far, Gillibrand’s only declared opponent is progressive activist Jonathan Tasini, the former head of the National Writers Union who unsuccessfully challenged Hillary Clinton in 2006.
The 39-year-old Ford, who relocated to New York after losing a 2006 Senate race in Tennessee, has repeatedly lampooned Gillibrand as being protected by her “party bosses,” an argument that Ford advisers believe resonates with nationwide anti-Washington sentiment.
Democrats said the effort to brand Ford as out of step with New York’s more liberal primary voters has taken on fresh urgency after they witnessed Republican Scott Brown’s monumental Massachusetts Senate win, in which his Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley, failed to respond quickly to his insurgent campaign.
In a statement, Gillibrand took aim at the Wall Street-friendly Democrats who have pledged to back Ford’s candidacy, including the billionaire husband-and-wife team of Steve Rattner and Maureen White.
Anyone is “more than welcome” to run against her this year, she said, adding:
“That includes a former Tennessee congressman ... and Merrill executive who has an anti-choice and anti-LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] record and whose candidacy is being floated by a few Wall Street insiders.”
As if to demonstrate their differing styles, the Ford campaign responded to that tough statement with the rhetorical equivalent of a two-by-four.
“If the unelected senator and tobacco industry apologist has a new strategy based on distorting Harold’s support for abortion rights and gay rights, then she’s not only a puppet of the party bosses, she’s a desperate liar,” Ford spokesman Davidson Goldin said.
Read more: politico.com
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liar? Ford wasn't just against gay marriage, but FOR a constitutional ban on it. As TNC put it, when Ford threw in on the constitutional ban, he got them stomping the floor in Tennessee, just like Wallace made his hay in Alabama when he became a segregationist for election sake.
Especially when you've gone to that length, if there is a change of mind on it, explain it. or say that you know you'd be representing NY and you are going with the voters there on it, ala Gillibrand.
and he is from Merrill Lynch. methinks maybe Wall Street does not so like gillibrand, and I would think in the current mood of the electorate, that should play for her and against him. but he is a perfect lil Rahm blue dog. |
