Reports: Ford's out of Senate race

gillibrand and fordBoth the NY Post and NYT are reporting that Harold Ford has decided to not run against Kirsten Gillibrand for the US Senate.

From a NYT op/ed by Ford that will run in Tuesday's paper:

"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."

A Siena poll out last week reported that KG led Ford 42-16 in a hypothetical primary matchup -- even though many voters statewide were less than certain about her overall candidacy.

So, who's up next?

The word going around of late has been that Mort Zuckerman -- the owner of the New York Daily News -- has been thinking about possibly running on the Republican line. Zuckerman has mainly been a supporter of Democrats -- but apparently he thinks a run as Republican could bypass a messy primary. [CityFile] [NYT] [OpenSecrets] [NYT]

Comments

Good Riddance

Yay!! I'm so relieved.

Wait, what? His rationale for not running is... because he doesn't want to make Gillibrand weaker and himself stronger... by losing, horribly. Makes sense.

(That was supposed to be a joke about Ford actually being a Republican. On review, this may have been too obtuse. Further complainst can be formally filed with the department of hasty blog comments including an SASE).

Please tell me that someone (no, it certainly wasn't Ford) is out there that can run and bring some dignity back to our great state. The last thing we need is four more years of someone who simply listens to what Chuck Schumer tells her to do.

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