Posted on 08/22/2005 11:55:42 AM PDT by areafiftyone
(1010 WINS) (ALBANY) Vowing to ``capture the Republican and Conservative nominations county by county,'' Edward Cox announced Monday endorsements from two GOP chairmen in his bid for the 2006 Senate nomination to take on Democratic incumbent Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Cox, a son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, is trying to blunt the drive by Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the GOP nod.
Pirro, who announced her candidacy Aug. 8, had been urged to enter the Senate race by 46 of the state's 62 county chairmen, including Monroe County Chairman Stephen Minarik, who also is the state party chairman.
Cox has said Pirro, who has supported abortion and gay rights, is too liberal to win needed Conservative Party backing. No Republican running statewide has won in New York since 1974 without the Conservative Party endorsement.
``In my judgment, Ed has the ideas, values and ability to mount the most aggressive challenge to Sen. Clinton,'' said Lowell Conrad, chairman of the Livingston County GOP, in a statement distributed by the Cox campaign.
``We are part of a political party that has a strong ideology. I have come to learn that Ed Cox firmly believes in that ideology,'' added Wayne County GOP Chairman Dan Olsen.
Livingston County is just south of Minarik's home county of Monroe, Wayne County just to the east.
There was no immediate comment from Pirro.
Also eyeing the 2006 GOP Senate nomination are former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and tax attorney William Brenner of Sullivan County.
Hammer away at her Cox, hammer away.
"We're going to stay in this race," vowed Cox just one day after Jeanine Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney and apparent favorite of many party leaders, formally announced her candidacy.
Pataki said Cox was the best Senate candidate, Nixon's son-in-law told the AP.
http://www.edcoxforsenate.com/
Cox, director of the Foreign Policy Association, may be boosted by a number of political action groups that have emerged to "stop Hillary" from using her re-election as a springboard to a potential 2008 presidential run.
He is a military veteran, belonging to the ROTC at Princeton and later serving in the Army Reserve.
Cox was a founding director in the 1980s of Student/Sponsored Partners, which provides mentoring for at-risk public school students and tuition for some to transfer to parochial schools. The program has reached 1,300 New York students.
He has been a trustee at the State University of New York since 1995 and is chairman of the New York State Council of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
He also is chairman of the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.
"He's smart. He's been a New Yorker all his life," Mueller said.
Cox declined to be interviewed about his potential candidacy.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, he now works at the Manhattan-based law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.
Not long now before they start chopping him to pieces over his father-in-law.
My exact thoughts also. When will they blame the "planning of the Watergate breakin" on him? They will paint him as another coming of Nixon. The MSM will trash this guy from day one.
We should run a pool to guess how long it takes for some hoser to ask, "What did Ed Cox know and when did he know it about his father-in-law."
Oh, first week for sure.
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