The Murdoch money-pit New York Post has been campaigning against New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand since her appointment almost three years ago.
The Murdoch rag promoted a series of primary challengers (Carolyn Maloney and Harold Ford, primarily) to Gillibrand in 2009 and 2010, none of whom got in.
And the Post enthusiastically endorsed her eventual Republican challenger, who lost statewide by 2-1, and by a wider margin in the Post 's circulation area.
Today, Gillibrand-hater Fred Dicker, the Post's very conservative Albany bureau chief, breathlessly promoted a rich white guy nobody (even Dicker) had heard of before.
Details, below.
The Murdoch money-pit's latest rich white hope (Harry Wilson and Betsy McCaughey evidently are not interested) is Marc Cenedella, founder of The Ladders.com who is worth an estimated $150 million.
Who is this guy no one has heard of?
According to Dicker:
Marc Cenedella, 41, a Yale and Harvard business-school graduate and native of upstate Fredonia who is believed to be worth about $150 million, is “seriously considering’’ running against Gillibrand.
snip
Cenedella, whose Manhattan-based company employees more than 300 people, has already approached state GOP Chairman Ed Cox and Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long about challenging Gillibrand, who polls show could be vulnerable to a strong challenger.
Cenedella, described by an adviser as a lifelong Republican who favors limits on legalized abortion, opposes gay marriage and backs the death penalty, is in ongoing talks about his candidacy with E. O’Brien Murray, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Turner’s stunning victory in the special election for the Brooklyn/Queens congressional seat left vacant by Anthony Weiner’s resignation in June.
Murray is obviously the adviser who described his new client to Dicker as someone who would appeal to Orthodox Jews in NY-9.
It's weird, though par for the course for Dicker, that he would not source Cenedella's unpopular views on social issues directly to Murray.
Dicker does give Murray some quote, about how awesome his client is:
“He could beat her, he would be formidable. ... Marc Cenedella has helped millions of people get jobs,’’ said Murray, adding that the initial response from GOP leaders to a possible candidacy “has been positive.”
GOP leaders, in every state, always respond positively to rich unknowns who say they'll self-fund.
And if Cenedella has helped 2 million people get jobs, at The Ladder.com's $100K minimum per job (until very recently), during the Great Recession, I'll eat my house.
But Murray, like most campaign consultants who deal with the media, will say anything, no matter how fantastic, to justify his fee.
Like a good Murdoch-bot, Dicker mentioned his Cenedella promotion on his WGDJ and WVOX radio show today, and spent all of his WRGB-TV analyst spot tonight pimping Cenedella.
But Dicker admitted, on TV, that he had never heard of Cenedella until very recently.
And he's more wired to NY GOP politics than anyone.
IMHO, Gillibrand will win re-election easily next year, against whomever.
In part because the Murdoch money-pit has little influence on statewide elections.
But mostly because she's done a great job as our Senator, leading on issues like DADT repeal, and generally representing everyone in NY very well.
The people who vote based on what they read in the Murdoch press and hear on Republican radio are, thankfully, a deluded minority in New York.