Jeanine Pirro to Run for Mrs. Clinton’s Senate Seat

Later today, the district attorney for New York state’s Westchester County, Jeanine Pirro, will announce her candidacy for the US Senate seat currently held by Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton. She could have had the nomination for the governorship or for state attorney general as she is something of a star in the state GOP, but she has opted to be David to Senator Clinton’s Goliath. She faces a primary battle with Edward Cox, son-in-law of Richard Nixon, before she can take on the ex-president’s wife. It promises to be the ugliest campaign of 2006.

On the plus side, Ms. Pirro has been a rather competent district attorney. She is credited with internet sting operations against would-be child molesters (although there is always a whiff of entrapment about sting operations), she has fought under-age drinking and aided battered women with well-placed prosecutions. Furthermore, typical of some New York state Republicans, she is pro-choice. Also in 1997, she made People magazine’s “most beautiful people,” which is completely irrelevant to the job but being photogenic does help in an image-driven democracy.

On the downside, Ms. Pirro is dogged by a criminal husband. Liable laws being what they are, that is a description one ought to use quite carefully, but in the case of Albert Pirro, one can point to his stint in the federal pen for tax fraud while his wife ran for re-election as DA in 2001. He also forced her to withdraw from contention for lieutenant governor in 1986 when he refused to release information about his law practice, which had come under scrutiny. It is unfair to tar the spouse of a wrongdoer with the same brush, but in politics, it happens. Ask Senator Clinton about her husband’s affect on her career.

Ms. Pirro’s attack on Senator Clinton is a simple one – Mrs. Clinton wants to be run for president in 2008, and New Yorkers deserve a full-time senator. “Trust me, my full-time is a lot better than her part-time," she has said, “Hillary Clinton is not running to serve the people of New York. We are a way station in her run for the presidency.” And that will be a tough argument to counter because it is true. And that is the real purpose of this race; Ms. Pirro needn’t win to achieve the GOP’s purpose, merely bloody Senator Clinton enough to weaken her 2008 run.

There is one tiny matter, though, that may backfire on the GOP. New York has a multiplicity of political parties entitled to automatic spots on the ballot. Usually the Conservative Party gives its line to the GOP candidate in the general election, just as the Working Families Party gives its spot to the Democrat. However, Ms. Pirro’s pro-choice stance bothers the pro-life Conservatives of New York. Their chairman Mike Long said, “It's going to make it a little more difficult for her to secure the Conservative endorsement.” Translated that means they might put up their own candidate and split the right-wing vote.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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