New profile by Helen Kennedy in the NY Daily News:

Hil foe eyes Conn. race
Tasini covets support from anti-Joe crew

Sen. Hillary Clinton's little-noticed primary foe is watching the remarkable political upset unfolding in Connecticut with envy - and some hope.

Jonathan Tasini's long-shot anti-war Democratic primary challenge to Clinton hasn't taken off the way Ned Lamont's long-shot anti-war Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman did. But Tasini thinks that could soon change.

"When Ned Lamont wins, voters will turn their attention to this race," he said, hoping anti-war activists will come help him gun for Clinton.

Continuation of NY Daily News article:

But Tasini has two major problems.

First, the boyish 49-year-old labor activist isn't a moneybags like Lamont, who spent millions on TV ads. He gathered 40,000 signatures to get on the ballot but has raised only $132,000, barely enough for a billboard. Few voters know who he is.

More importantly, Clinton is no Lieberman. She may have angered leftists by backing the Iraq war and a flag-burning ban, but she isn't seen as a party traitor.

Campaigning in Bryant Park, Jones Beach and Central Park, Tasini asks Democrats if they support the war, the death penalty, gay marriage and health care for all.

"On every issue, they agree with me, not Hillary Clinton. But in the end, they always say, 'Well, I just like her,'" he said. "She's got a powerful mystique based on celebrity and it's very hard to break through that."

Tasini is clearly having a good time playing David to Clinton's Goliath and he's worn holes in his ever-present cowboy boots.

"I may fall a vote short on Election Day, but if the message to pro-war Democrats is, 'You will pay a political price,' I'll be a very happy person if that saves one life down the road," he said.

He also hopes to form a progressive network to elect liberals in the future, though he doesn't foresee running again. "My whole entire adult life has not been about making money, it's about changing the world. I look at this as a long-term thing," he said.

Tasini's biggest headlines so far came when he criticized Israel's pounding of Lebanon. His point - that killing civilians ultimately weakens Israel's security - was lost amid suggestions that Tasini, a Jew with a goyish name, was anti-Israel.

"To criticize Israel in a New York election? Madness," said Quinnipiac University pollster Mickey Carroll. "The politically sensible thing to do is keep your mouth shut."

But that's not Tasini's style.

"When you love something, you criticize it when it's wrong," he said. "The same way I'm a patriotic American and I'm furious about this government, I love Israel and I'm furious about what's happening there."

Tasini's parents emigrated from Poland and Palestine. His father was an early computer scientist; his mother, one of the first women to go to medical school, became a psychiatrist.

He lived in Israel as a teenager and studied at Tel Aviv University before getting a political science degree from UCLA.

Tasini is best known as the head of the National Writers Union who successfully sued The New York Times in a 2001 Supreme Court case over compensating freelancers.

Originally published on August 6, 2006

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