Blog by Snowbird

Jeanine Pirro to Run for Senate

Well, it's unofficial until tomorrow when she goes on record, but Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro will throw her hat into the ring with Hillary Clinton for the Jr. New York Senate seat in the upcoming 2006 senatorial elections. The polls don't give Pirro much of a chance against Hillary, and in all honesty, neither do I. I would love to see her win, but Hillary is in good standing, poll-wise, with New Yorker's right now. However, what's going to be interesting is seeing how Hillary's people handle a full blown campaign. When she ran in 2000, Guliani wound up quitting because of cancer and Rick Lazio was thrown into the race. Lazio did an awful job of reaching out to voters about his policies and in the end Clinton won by a landslide.

In the six years since Hillary became Senator, she's been grooming herself for the White House. She has not said she won't go for the Democratic nomination, and if she does, she leaves New York two years into her second term as Senator. (If she wins reelection) This is something New Yorker's should be thinking about, however, as the Post's Frederic U. Dicker rightly states, in his article "One-note Song a Losing Tune," Pirro can't count on only this argument to win her the Senate seat. She needs to come out strong with what she stands for, what differences there are between herself and Clinton. She needs to have her campaign paraphernalia all over New York State, she needs to garner as much publicity as possible, and she needs to keep repeating to New Yorker's why she should be our Senator instead of Hillary Clinton. She needs to be clear, consice and to-the-point with her campaign. She can't win on popularity, she can't win on name recognition, she might not be able to win on policy issues, but she stands the best chance with the last.

Pirro not only has to worry about Clinton, she's got to worry about the New York Conservative party, which doesn't like her liberal social stance. She won't get the money from them that she needs for this election if she doesn't give a little in that area. However, that's a catch-22 because she would be most appealing to New Yorkers with a liberal social view. Just like Mayor Bloomberg, who might as well be a Democrat for all his backing of their issues, Pirro needs to find her balance within the party. Only then will she stand a chance against Hillary in 2006.

posted by Snowbird @ 3:06 PM