He probably won’t run for New York governor but might for the U.S. Senate … or will he?
     
That’s the speculation swirling around Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former New York City mayor who walked tall after the Sept. 11 attacks and ran for U.S. president in 2008.
    
A spokeswoman says the 65-year-old former federal prosecutor has made no decisions.
    
But the New York Daily News, the New York Times  and the New York Post  all report that Giuliani has decided not to run for New York governor in 2010.
    
Analysts think he could defeat Democratic incumbent Governor David Paterson without much fuss. But overcoming a possible challenge from New York’s Democratic attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, could be have been difficult. Cuomo has not announced his candidacy.
    
The Daily News reports that Giuliani is strongly considering a Senate run against Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s term. Clinton, who lost in last year’s Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, is now U.S. secretary of state.

The Daily News cites poll numbers showing Giuliani losing to Cuomo 53 percent to 43 percent in a race for governor,  but beating Gillibrand 54 percent to 40 percent for the Senate.

But the Senate speculation may not last long.

The New York Post quotes people close to Giuliani as saying a run for the Senate is unlikely.

And even the Daily News  seems to be hedging its bets with a story saying Giuliani doesn’t need to run for the Senate because he already has plenty of money and influence and a private life that’s working out just fine.
    
Giuliani ran for the Senate in a 2000 campaign that pitted him against Clinton. But events and declining poll numbers were against him and he withdrew after a quick succession of revelations: he had prostate cancer, he had a girlfriend, and he was separating from his second wife.
    
Giuliani has since beaten cancer, divorced his second wife, Donna Hanover, and married his former girlfriend, Judith Nathan.

Photo Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Giuliani)

It’s been a year since Americans have gone to the polls, but as they do on Tuesday President Barack Obama may be less excited than he was last year, particularly in Virginia and New Jersey where his fellow Democrats are facing trouble.

Republicans are hoping to capture the governors’ mansions in those two states to rebuild some momentum after being trounced by Democrats last year. They also are trying to make it a referendum against Obama’s agenda to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and financial regulatory structure as well as his plans to address climate change.

In Virginia where Obama won narrowly in 2008, Republican Bob McDonnell has built a sizable lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds while in traditionally Democratic-leaning New Jersey Republican Chris Christie is neck and neck with Democratic incumbent Governor Jon Corzine.

Obama has campaigned for both of his fellow Democrats but that may not be enough for them to win.

While Republicans are salivating at their prospects in those two races, Democrats are eyeing a congressional race in upstate New York to replace a Republican lawmaker who became Obama’s Army secretary. Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman was barely ahead of Democrat Bill Owens in the traditionally Republican district.

After tremendous infighting, the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, withdrew from the race and endorsed the Democrat, highlighting the rift between moderates and the conservatives of the Republican party.

Elsewhere, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Markets Committee begins a two-day meeting this morning to discuss interest rate policy and whether the U.S. economy is starting to build its own momentum towards a recovery.

And the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will begin working on a climate change bill, but unhappy Republicans are threatening to boycott the session.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Obama returns from a campaign trip to New Jersey)

Sarah Palin on Thursday endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over Republican Party choice Dede Scozzafava in a special congressional election in upstate New York that has the GOP divided.

“I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next representative from New York’s 23rd Congressional district. It’s my honor to endorse Doug and to do what I can to help him win,” Palin said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches!” she added.

Some political observers view the election to fill the only open House seat this year — with no big names in the running — as an important fight in a battle for the soul of the Republican Party.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, made it clear she thinks her party made the wrong choice this time.

“Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate that more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party’s ticket,” she said.

“Republicans and conservatives around the country are sending an important message to the Republican establishment in their outstanding grassroots support for Doug Hoffman: no more politics as usual.”

Palin lists what she says are his best Republican and conservative attributes and best of all, she says, Hoffman “has not been anointed by any political machine.”

Moderate Scozzafava has been plagued throughout her campaign by grassroots conservative activists who have questioned her credentials, reports Politico.com. Critics call her a RINO — Republican in name only.

The Democrat in the three-way race, Bill Owens, got a show of support from the head of his party on Tuesday at one of two Democratic fund raisers President Barack Obama attended in New York City.

The winner would succeed former Republican Represenative John McHugh, a nine-term House member who resigned in September after Obama tapped him to be  secretary of the Army.
For more Reuters political coverage click here.

Photo credit:Reuters/Nathaniel Wilder (Palin at Governor’s Picnic in Fairbanks in July )

When President Barack Obama landed in Albany, New York, on Monday, the leader of his welcoming party was a man whose name has been linked with his in some news reports lately — New York Governor David Paterson. Or perhaps he should be referred to as “Governor-for-now.”

According to recent news reports, the Obama administration is so worried that his fellow Democrat Paterson’s unpopularity will drag down New York’s Democratic members of Congress and the Democrat-controlled state legislature in the November 2010 election that the president asked him to withdraw from the race. According to The New York Times, Obama’s request that Paterson step aside was put forward by his political advisers, but approved by the president.  Paterson said Sunday he was still running for office.

Paterson was standing at the bottom of the stairs to greet Obama when Air Force One reached Albany. The jet engines were so loud that no one could hear their exchange, but they shook hands and had a brief exchange that looked cordial. “Obama did a kind of half-embrace with his back to the press corps, and said something to Paterson, who listened for a moment and then said something back,” a White House press pool report said.

Paterson sat in the front row during Obama’s speech at a local community college. The president shook hands with him again on entering, and put his left hand on Paterson’s shoulder briefly. At the beginning of his speech, Obama said, “A wonderful man, the governor of the great state of New York, David Paterson, is in the house.”

The reports about Obama’s recommendation had raised some charges that Obama, the first black U.S. president, was guilty of racism against Paterson, currently one of only two black governors of U.S. states.  Michael Steele, the first African-American to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, raised the issue Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” television program.

“I found that to be stunning, that the White House would send word to one of only two black governors in the country not to run for re-election,” he said. He said it struck him as strange that Obama did not raise the same question about New Jersey Governor John Corzine, who is white and also trailing in opinion polls.

“It will be very interesting to see what the response from black leadership around the country will be about the president calling the governor to step down or not run for election,” Steele said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama shakes hands with Paterson at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.)

Campaigning for the White House last year, Barack Obama promised his wife, Michelle, he would take her to a Broadway show when he won. Four months after becoming president, Obama did just that on Saturday. 

The Obamas flew to New York for dinner in Greenwich Village and a Broadway play. 

“I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

The Obamas did not travel to New York in the Boeing 747 Jumbo jet used as Air Force One. They flew in a smaller Gulfstream 500 plane to JFK airport, before hopping into Manhattan on the Marine One helicopter.

A casual Obama wore a dark business suit with no tie, Michelle a black cocktail dress dress, her famous arms bared, and black high-heel shoes.

They dined at the Blue Hill restaurant in Washington Square and later saw the play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” by August Wilson at the Belasco Theater.

Their motorcade’s path to the theater was lined with people waving, shouting greetings and taking photographs.

Photo by REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (The Obamas board a small jet at Andrews Air Force Base)

Slightly more than half of Americans say Caroline Kennedy has what it takes to serve in the U.S. Senate, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Poll. 

Kennedy, 51, is campaigning to fill the New York senate seat held by Hillary Clinton, who has been nominated for Secretary of State.

The only person who gets a vote is New York Gov. David Paterson, who will appoint any replacement for Clinton. 

Kennedy, a lawyer, has been involved in education issues but has never held office. She has name recognition and membership in an American political dynasty. Her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, is one of the most powerful members of the Senate. 

But is Caroline Kennedy qualified to a senator?

Fifty-two percent of Americans say “yes” and 42 percent say “not” qualified, according to the poll of 1,013 adults published on Monday. 

Which raises the question, what exactly qualifies anyone to be a senator?

The U.S. Constitution lists only three qualifications: 

-you must be at least 30 

-you have to be a U.S. citizen for nine years

-you have live in the state from which you are elected 

That’s it. 
    
For the record there have been 180 senators appointed since 1913 to seats vacated by death, expulsion or resignation.

Some have had family connections — like Muriel Humphrey of Minnesota and Jean Carnahan of Missouri, widows appointed to fill seats to which their husbands were elected.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg at John F. Kennedy Awards ceremony at Harvard in November)

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN.  - Robert Kennedy Jr. — a Kennedy who is not backing Sen. Barack Obama — campaigned on Thursday for Sen. Hillary Clinton, saying he wanted to explain why other members of his family are wrong and he is right.

“I am here because I love this woman,” he told a crowd of Clinton supporters in southern Indiana, which holds its presidential nominating primary on Tuesday.

“There are some members of my family who have decided to do the wrong thing and support Barack Obama,” he said. “Let me tell you why they’re wrong and I’m right, because I know Hillary Clinton better than they know Barrack Obama.”

Kennedy’s uncle,  Sen. Ted Kennedy, and cousin Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy, have thrown their support behind Obama.

But Robert Kennedy Jr., the son of Sen. Robert Kennedy who was assassinated while campaigning for the US presidency in 1968, has supported Clinton since she first started to run for U.S. Senate in 1999. She now holds the same U.S. Senate seat from New York his father did.

The younger Kennedy, an environmental activist and lawyer, said Clinton ran in New York after enduring ”one of the most savage beatings of any public figure during my lifetime,” recalling the Whitewater investigation that led to the impeachment of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

The former first lady worked hard to win over Republican strongholds in upstate New York and will work hard to win votes nationwide, he said.

“I saw it happen in upstate New York,” he said. “People, this party has gotten a good look at Hillary Clinton, and they know all those negatives that have been grilled into them for ten years by the right-wing Republicans — that it’s not true, that this is a leader who is going to be one of the most extraordinary presidents in our history.”

As for his family, and the Democratic Party, he said, “We’re all going to be together after August.”

 Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.   

 - Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Kennedy and Clinton campaign in Jeffersonville, IN)