As Pirro Opts For AG Race, Party Seeks Candidate vs. Clinton
By John Toscano

Jeanine Pirro, the longtime Westchester District Attorney, is much more suited to seek the state’s prosecutorial office and will likely do well.0

Jeanine Pirro did the expected last week when she dropped out of next year’s race against United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and decided instead to run for the state attorney general’s seat.

The longtime Westchester District Attorney is much more suited to seek the state’s prosecutorial office and will likely do well in getting the financing and support she was being denied in her longshot bid to defeat the very well-funded Clinton, who is seeking a second term. No matter how you look at it, Pirro was facing a formidable, difficult-to-defeat foe in the Senate contest.

That was apparent from the start, when Pirro’s Senate bid got off in a tangle, denying her any momentum. This was followed by an inability to raise funds and soft support from state Republican leaders.

Her futile campaign finally hit a brick wall when state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, ignoring support for Pirro from Governor George Pataki and state Republican Chairman Stephen Minarik, suggested Pirro quit the Senate race and run for state attorney general.

That was the coup de gras for Pirro’s Senate ambitions, so she took the only road open to her and jumped into the attorney general’s race. This is not to say that she will have a clear, easy path to the Republican nomination. Unexpectedly, Pataki, asked by reporters whether he would endorse her for attorney general as he had for the Senate, responded: “I thought she would have been an excellent candidate. Now she’ll have to go out and make the case.”

The governor prefaced that remark with a comment: “With respect to any office, you have to go earn it.”

Possible Republican primary challengers are state Senator Michael Balboni from Nassau County and Chauncey Parker, Pataki’s criminal justice coordinator.

The leading Democratic contenders for the attorney general nomination are former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green and Andrew Cuomo, former federal Housing and Urban Development head.

As for the Republican nominee to oppose Clinton, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, who has strong conservative leanings, has suddenly come into the picture. Also, some sentiment has been revived for Edward Cox, a Manhattan attorney who was pushed aside when Pirro entered the race but is now gaining favor with some state GOP leaders. Cox is the son-in-law of former President Richard Nixon.

Not surprisingly, Bruno was involved in Pirro’s making her final decision. When he and Minarik met with her about eight days ago, they told her she had to make a final decision quickly so the party could move toward deciding on a slate of candidates to be in place for the new year. The next day, she made her announcement.

In a prepared statement Pirro said she made the switch because: “My head and my heart remain in law enforcement, and my public service should continue to be in that arena.”