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Schumer Casts a Wide Net, Campaigning for His Immediate Future and the Long Run
New York Times ^ | October 19, 2004 | MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Posted on 10/19/2004 6:21:39 AM PDT by OESY

While national Democratic leaders have been busy pummeling President Bush, New York's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, spent part of a campaign debate on Sunday aligning himself with the president, saying he voted with Mr. Bush "to extend the child income tax credit,'' and that he "voted with the president for authorization to go into Iraq."

With those comments, Mr. Schumer underscored a strategic reality as he seeks re-election: He is not just content to win a second term in the United States Senate, but he is looking to win big. And to do that, he must attract more conservative voters.

The strategy is all the more noteworthy, political strategists and pollsters said, because Mr. Schumer refused during the debate to rule out a run for governor in 2006. Should he make such a run, firming up support among conservative upstate and suburban Democrats can only help that effort if he finds himself in a primary race against New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who is also considering running for governor.

"My guess is he is going to run for governor," said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn., said of Mr. Schumer. "Who knows? But he might, so why not be nice to everybody?"

And so in the debate Sunday, televised live on WABC Channel 7, against his Senate challengers, Howard D. Mills, a Republican Assemblyman, and Dr. Marilyn O'Grady, Conservative Party candidate, Mr. Schumer presented an image of a modest man of faith who not only supports the president in the war on terror, but thinks he can do better.

In responses that were carefully shaped over days of debate preparation, Mr. Schumer sounded both folksy and solemn, criticizing the president in the mildest of terms, referring to his own religious faith, or God, at least five times, and invoking the name of Senator John McCain, a politician that other Democrats like to mention when they want to appear independent and nonpartisan.

"It certainly says he knows that he has the Democratic Party base as a guarantee and he is looking for Republican and Independence Party voters who may be attracted by his record, and wants them to know he is not an obstructionist," said Philip J. Friedman, a Democratic political consultant. "It's like Willie Sutton, going where the money is. He is looking for where the votes are."

Mr. Schumer's spokesman, Stu Loeser, said yesterday that during the debate the senator criticized the president on several points and that Mr. Schumer has referred to his faith when he is speaking on the floor of the Senate. "Chuck detailed eight specific policy disagreements with the Bush administration in 12 questions," Mr. Loeser said. "If he did it without sounding partisan, that's great."

But Mr. Schumer's performance during the debate, which was seen only by an estimated 70,000 viewers, was not the kind of hardball that he is known for, the type that helped him defeat the three-term incumbent Republican, Alfonse M. D'Amato, six years ago. During the debate, he laid out his sharpest criticism of the administration, saying, "my greatest brief against the Bush administration is not what they've done overseas, but what they haven't done here at home.'' He added: "Every team knows you need a good offense and a good defense. We are doing so little to protect our homeland, whether it be in the air, in the ports, with trucks, on the subways."

In fact, The New York Sun ran an editorial yesterday saying that the big winner in the debate was President Bush, in part because Senator Schumer said he agreed with Mr. Bush in voting for the $87 billion for efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq - money that the president's Democratic challenger, John Kerry, and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, voted against.

"What a remarkable moment," the editorial said. "New York's senior senator is accusing his own party's presidential and vice-presidential nominee of voting 'to leave our soldiers high and dry.' "

In his bid for a second term, Mr. Schumer is playing it safe. He is running television zcommercials that highlight his support of groups like veterans. Even as his opponents hit him, even as Mr. Mills insisted that the senator has failed to deliver for New Yorkers, Mr. Schumer kept smiling. During the debate, he maintained a neighborly manner. The approach, political pollsters and strategists said, is likely to pay dividends at the voting booth now and in the future, no matter which office he seeks.

Political analysts and pollsters said that Mr. Schumer's approach makes it easier for voters who might pull the lever for President Bush to then jump to the Democratic line.

"Strategically this is a person who clearly does not want to be identified as a downstate New York politician, so in many ways he is working in the Moynihan tradition," said Lee Miringoff, president of the National Council of Public Polls and the director of the Marist College Poll, referring to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. "He looks for every way to make a bridge to the other parties or other regions of the state. Clearly he gets the New York City vote. He wants to make sure he does well in the suburbs and upstate as well."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; damato; democrats; drugs; howardmills; iraq; kerry; marilynogrady; mauricecarroll; mccain; miringoff; moynihan; philipfriedman; ports; publicpolls; quinnipiacpolling; schumer; spitzer; williesutton
Schumer's war on drug companies is a major reason why we are short vaccines at the onset of the flu season. His obstructionist blocking of Senate votes on Bush's judicial nominees indicates he favors the eradication of all vestiges of religion in public life, including the altering of the Pledge of Allegiance. In the final analysis, Schumer stands for himself. He is no Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
1 posted on 10/19/2004 6:21:43 AM PDT by OESY
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To: OESY
What's really scary is that Schumer has all of six years in the U.S. Senate under his belt, and yet he's got more seniority than the other three Senators in New York and New Jersey.

No wonder this area has become largely irrelevant to the rest of the U.S.

2 posted on 10/19/2004 6:27:05 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I made enough money to buy Miami -- but I pissed it away on the Alternative Minimum Tax.)
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To: OESY

Schumer needs to go,and someone with sense elected for his seat. Hillary bought the votes via klintoon pardons. Bush/Cheney 2004 Life-time NRA Member


3 posted on 10/19/2004 6:41:47 AM PDT by No Surrender No Retreat
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To: Alberta's Child; OESY

Another point that proves that Chuckie's already got more than one leg out the Senate door..Schumer has a war chest of some $20 million..he's spending next to nothing on this campaign, yet he's given only about $50,000 to his SDenate colleagues to help in their campaigns, and many could really use the money..not the behavior of someone who wants to win friends and influence fellow Dem senators...in short, a sign he doesn't expect to be there a long time..


4 posted on 10/19/2004 6:45:15 AM PDT by ken5050
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To: ken5050

My prediction is that Schumer will be facing off against Giuliani for governor in 2006.


5 posted on 10/19/2004 6:52:26 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I made enough money to buy Miami -- but I pissed it away on the Alternative Minimum Tax.)
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To: Alberta's Child; ken5050
My prediction is that Schumer will be facing off against Giuliani for governor in 2006.

Guess again. Schumer was elected in 1998 so his seat is up this year. The next time that seat will be up is 2010. It's Hillary's seat that will be up in 2006.

6 posted on 10/19/2004 7:30:39 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Dan Rather's got to go!)
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To: Paleo Conservative
My prediction is that Schumer will be facing off against Giuliani for governor in 2006.

I'm predicting that George Pataki will not run again in 2006, and that Giuliani will run for governor instead of running for the U.S. Senate.

7 posted on 10/19/2004 7:40:11 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I made enough money to buy Miami -- but I pissed it away on the Alternative Minimum Tax.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Pataki will NOT run again, because he'd lose..simple as that. NY Stae is in BIG trouble financially..the state is a mess..the NEXT governor gets to inherit it. I'm not sure about Rudy. He's more prone to an executive position, but Albany is the pits..really..the state government is broken..it doesn't work...the only reason the legislature doesn't screw things up even more is because they can't wait to get the hell out of there..Rudy doesn't really want to eb in the Senate, but if W asks him to, to take out Hillary..finish her off, he'd probably say yes.. However, it may be moot, because my surprise is she won't run again in 2006..


8 posted on 10/19/2004 7:49:47 AM PDT by ken5050
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To: OESY
"We are doing so little to protect our homeland, whether it be in the air, in the ports, with trucks, on the subways."

Yo, Chuckie!
The reason we're fighting overseas is so we DON'T have to fight in our ports and our subways!

9 posted on 10/19/2004 8:46:15 AM PDT by Redbob
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