Ben Smith has a rose-colored look at a possible Senate run in New York by Mort Zuckerman, the 72-year-old media mogul and pundit who seems interested in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) seat and is — like Harold Ford did, until last night — getting nothing but kudos from the state’s moneyed elite.
Zuckerman, who owns the New York Daily News and U.S.News & World Report, has been a practicing pundit for years and “has always wanted to be in the political mix,” said Howard Rubenstein, the New York PR man and a Zuckerman friend. More important, the weaknesses of his likely opponent, Gillibrand, are clear to everyone, and a statewide office has rarely seemed so ripe for the plucking.
“He’d be her ‘worst possible opponent’ among possible candidates, said Democratic political consultant Dan Gerstein.