New York – If anyone deserves a spirited, competitive election this fall, it’s Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. She is, after all, the unelected appointee of an unelected governor. New Yorkers were turned off by her history of conservative positions on gun control and immigration, and dizzied when she reversed those positions at the drop of a hat.
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Her first year in the Senate went over like a lead balloon, earning her an approval rating of just 26% in a recent Quinnipiac poll. Fully 58% of New Yorkers say they still don’t know enough about her to form an opinion.
By rights, she should be facing the political fight of her life – beginning with a contentious Democratic primary in September. But Gillibrand supporters from President Obama on down are doing their level best to shut the voters out again – by strong-arming every serious candidate out of the primary race.
A party that calls itself Democratic should show more respect for the democratic process.
The latest challenger to feel the heat is, of course, Harold Ford, the former congressman from Tennessee who now lives and works in New York. All he did was sound out potential donors about a potential campaign. Team Gillibrand came down on him like a ton of bricks.
Within days, both Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) were in Ford’s face with a message: Don’t even think about it. Which is pretty much what they and their surrogates told Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) and Steve Israel (D-L.I.) and others who previously dared to question Gillibrand’s ownership of her seat.
Not only that, but Reid put in a call to Mayor Bloomberg – some of whose political advisers are helping Ford – urging him not to rock the boat.
Even White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced yesterday that Obama is in Gillibrand’s corner – a not-so-subtle signal that he doesn’t want a primary.
Meanwhile, Gillibrand’s interest group pals – abortion groups, gay rights activists and labor unions – got busy caricaturing Ford, an avowedly centrist Democrat, as a right-wing loon.
A videotape circulated by NARAL Pro-Choice New York shows sound bites of Ford during his Tennessee Senate race in 2006 calling himself “pro-life” – leaving out the context that he supports legalized abortion and voted for embryonic stem-cell research.
And when Ford went on the “Today” show yesterday to declare his support for gay marriage, he was immediately slammed as a “snake oil salesman” by Alan Van Capelle of the Empire State Pride Agenda.
This is because Ford, a longtime proponent of civil unions for same-sex couples, twice voted for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage – a low point, to be sure. But the gay lobby could have given him credit for evolving rather than ripping his previous stand.
There’s nothing wrong with holding Ford accountable for past positions that may well put him at odds with average New York Democrats. But the verbal grenades that Gillibrand and her supporters are lobbing in his direction send all the wrong signals.
They make her look overly cozy with special interests, meekly dependent on Schumer and other protectors – and, worst of all, terrified of running on her record.
It’s telling that her campaign is bragging about her fund-raising prowess and touting the $7 million she’s already banked – as if average New Yorkers should care how effective she is at asking for money.
New Yorkers would be more impressed if she had, say, blocked provisions in the Senate health reform bill that could cost state taxpayers billions of dollars – hitting us harder than any other state.
And she’s the last person to be criticizing another candidate for conveniently changing his stripes to run in New York. She was one of the National Rifle Association’s best friends in Washington until about five minutes after Gov. Paterson tapped her, when suddenly she was all about gun control.
On this and other issues, “she’s done more flip-flops than a beached fish,” says Baruch College public affairs Prof. Doug Muzzio.
If Gillibrand wants to be taken seriously as a leader, she should call off the dogs and welcome Ford into the race.
If her criticisms to date are on target, he’s a reverse carpetbagger from Tennessee who’s too conservative for this state’s voting public.
So, what does she have to be afraid of?
She should welcome Ford’s challenge, not have allies shoo him away.
Want free fish for shabbos? Run for senate and Rahm will deliver it to your door.
we dont need ford. we need a good conservative/moderate democrat like gillibrand to stay exactly where she is. she is the one good thing paterson ever did
Gillibrand is Chuckie Cheese’s lapdog. He says, “jump” and she says, “How high?” She’s a lame duck and has no backbone. She voted to keep funding ACORN even after they aided and abetted criminal behavior.
SHAME ON YOU GILLIBRAND!
This country is becoming more and more like communist China everyday. When will these politicians start listening to the PEOPLE?
I thought obama is for change?? Perhaps he meant change by becoming a dectator… Every american should be allowed to run for public office and let gilibrand run her campaign on her record and if her record is no good then she should of worked harder. The choice shell be up to the people and not to the president and his gang.
gllibrand has been great. she is al damato’s girl, not chuck shumers. get your facts straigt.
There is already a challenger to Sen. Gillibrand: Jonathan Tasini. He is a Jew whose father fought in the IDF.
WHAT is this article talking about when it speaks of an “unelected Senator?” The GOP has promised to oppose Senator Gillibrand with everything they’ve got, right? All the Democrats are trying to do is avoid wasting hard-to-get funds on internecine fighting between candidates who are 90% in agreement. If that should happen, chas v;sholom, then Senator Gillibrand will have a harder time with an opponent with whom there are quite genuine disagreements. THAT’S the real issue.