Posted on 05/06/2003 12:37:27 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Michael Benjamin has all the makings of a first-rate Senate candidate.
The New York Republican is sharp, aggressive and perfectly at home talking tax cuts, welfare reform or judicial nominees. He speaks Spanish (good for reaching out to Latinos), he's spent years combating domestic violence (should help with women), and he says the voters he's met like him.
The only obstacle facing the 33-year-old Wall Street equities trader is his opponent, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer.
With $15 million in the bank and Democrats far outnumbering Republicans in the Empire State, Schumer should be nearly impossible to beat -- as GOP Rep. Peter King’s decision last month not to seek the seat indicates.
What's more, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, pinning its hopes for picking up two or three seats on the South, is unlikely to spend much on a race it hardly hopes to win.
None of that seems to have deterred Benjamin, who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) in 1996 and calls himself a "center-right Republican," closer to George W. Bush than to ex-New York Sen. Jacob Javits.
"I believe that on many issues I represent more of the mainstream and that Senator Schumer represents an insane and irrational position on many important issues such as welfare reform, campaign finance, taxes, abortion, Second Amendment rights -- you name it," Benjamin said in a recent interview.
"I've traveled to most counties in New York, and I am warmly received in the places I go. I think people are viewing me as a breath of fresh air."
That may be true, but for now Benjamin will have a tough time getting his message out: In the first quarter of 2003, his campaign raised less than $5,000. Benjamin said that since the beginning of April his campaign has raised "in the low six figures."
He also pointed out that Republicans can win statewide in New York -- witness Gov. George Pataki, Javits, and former Sen. Al D'Amato, whom Schumer beat in 1998. (D'Amato spent more than $24 million on the race.)
Plus, said Benjamin, he brings rich "life experiences" to the table that will help him overcome any Republican primary foes -- so far, there are none -- and, possibly, Schumer.
Benjamin, a 1992 graduate of New York University, said that he grew up spending summers and winters in Queens and the rest of the year somewhere in Latin America -- Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador and elsewhere, where his father worked for Bank of America.
He said that since Sept. 11, 2001, voters in New York and across the country expect leaders to be bolder when it comes to national security.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with, you know, observing the fact that September 11 has changed the political landscape," said Benjamin, who recalled emerging from the Fulton Street subway station, a few blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, just after the second plane hit.
"I believe this post-9-11 world basically represents an entirely new era," he said. "Whereas America kind of felt we could rely on the security of two vast oceans and our allies to ensure our safety, I don't think we can afford that anymore. We have to be on guard against terrorists, tyrants."
He would have two big legs up in 2004: the GOP convention and Bush's attempt to win NY. Plenty of free media and prime time coverage from that to make up for what will be a huge fundraising disadvantage for any nominee.
If he can show the GOP in a positive, conservative light that can only help Bush in NY.
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