Tasini challenges Clinton
Sunday, September 03, 2006
By Frederic Pierce

Jonathan Tasini believes he's more than a speed bump on U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's road to re-election.

The underfunded, unknown and often unwelcome Democratic challenger to the former first lady sees himself as the conscience of New York's Democratic Party.

"I'm where the majority of voters are, and she is not," said Tasini, citing Clinton's support for the war in Iraq as his primary reason for launching his against-all-odds campaign against the party icon.

"It's simply the fact that voters don't know her position about the war, about same-sex marriage, about health care, about the death penalty," he said. "When you actually interact with voters, it's surprising how they shift. They're shocked to hear where she actually stands."

In the party's primary Sept. 12, Democrats will choose between Clinton, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, and Tasini, a labor activist and freelance writer who lives in a rent-controlled Manhattan apartment.

The winner will face either former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer or former Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen "KT" McFarland, who are squaring off for the Republican line the same day.

It's not a vote Democrats should take lightly, Tasini said, even though the most recent Quinnipiac University poll put Clinton's support among likely primary voters at a daunting 86 percent.

Clinton's celebrity and her $33 million campaign fund have created a misimpression of the nation's most famous senator in the minds of Democratic voters, Tasini said.

Speculation over whether she will run for president in 2008 has inspired newspaper headlines, a cover story in Time magazine and an obligatory question from reporters at every campaign stop.

Clinton said Friday she is focused on re-election and shifting the balance in Congress toward the Democrats this fall. She said she has always been upfront with New York voters, even on complicated issues like Iraq.

"I've been a constant and consistent critic," Clinton said. "This president made decisions, a series of blunders, that have put our young men and women at risk and really placed our country in a difficult position. I have a situation that I'm trying to figure out how best to deal with."

In 2002, Clinton joined most of her Democratic congressional colleagues and authorized President Bush to go to war in Iraq.

As the war has grown more unpopular a Marist Poll this summer found that 64 percent of the state's Democratic voters were inclined to vote for a hypothetical candidate opposed to the war Clinton has become more critical of the effort.

Last month, she publicly scolded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the administration's "failed policy" in Iraq and called for his resignation. In June, she supported a failed amendment that urged a phased pullout of troops to begin at year's end but stopped short of setting a deadline for complete withdrawal.

Tasini said he's not impressed.

"I believe the war was illegal and immoral and should never have been fought," he said. "And just because of that, I don't believe she deserves re-election, given all the damage that war has done to our state, our country and the world."

That sentiment is what propelled antiwar Democrat Ned Lamont past longtime incumbent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman in the Connecticut primary last month, raising hopes in Tasini's camp for a similar, pro-peace surge in New York.

The expectedwave was hardly a ripple. Clinton met personally with Lamont and pledged to support his candidacy over that of Lieberman, whom she'd sided with during the primary battle.

Tasini said Clinton's personal popularity, her less-hawkish-than-Lieberman views and his own lack of both name recognition and money (Lamont spent $4 million of his own cash) have combined to keep his campaign from catching fire.

Few party regulars even those who vigorously oppose the war have publicly loosened their embrace of Clinton.

"I've had a great time campaigning," Clinton said Friday, as hundreds of people crowded around the Empire Room door at the state fairgrounds, waiting for her and her husband former President Bill Clinton to emerge. "I've had wonderful crowds and lots of positive responses.

"I think people are well aware of what I've done on agriculture and economic development and education and health care and so much else, and it's very exciting for me because there seems to be a positive response to my message out in the state."

Clinton has refused to debate Tasini, denying him the kind of media exposure he said he needs to let "traditional" Democrats know where she stands on key issues.

Mostly, Clinton takes the same kinds of moderate positions at least by Democratic Party standards taken by her husband.

She supports the death penalty. She supports gay civil unions, but not gay marriage. She supports universal health insurance coverage, but not a single-payer government health plan.

Tasini is anti-death penalty, pro-gay marriage and in favor of expanding Medicaid to cover all Americans.

Although Tasini remains a blip on public opinion polls, he maintains that he's a substantial blip.

"The recent Marist poll has me at close to 15 percent, which is pretty extraordinary, when you think about the money we have to spend," said Tasini, who has raised less than $200,000.

Tasini acknowledges he might not beat Clinton, but says a good showing could send a powerful message.

"Winning is also about making it clear to the Democratic Party that those people who vote for immoral wars are going to be held accountable," he said. "It may not be that I get 50 percent plus one on Sept. 12, but politics is a long-term project, and I'm trying to build a more progressive Democratic Party."