The Nation

BLOG | Posted 09/10/2006 @ 4:51pm
The "Vote For What You Believe" Campaign

Senator Hillary Clinton's army of political aides, strategists and tacticians have spent an inordinate amount of time in recent months worrying about the Democratic primary challenge that their boss faces from anti-war candidate Jonathan Tasini. The Clintonites maneuvered mightily to keep Tasini out of the spotlight at the state Democratic convention in May. They did the same when the small but influential Working Families Party pondered its endorsement. They discouraged Democrats from supporting the petition drive that eventually got Tasini's name on Tuesday's Democratic primary ballot. And they made it clear that Clinton would not join any debate that included Tasini.

Gay City News

Why Tasini Matters

Clinton Senate Challenger Wants Debate on War, Marriage Equality

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

“If you put my issues in one column and her issues in the other column, and you took our names off, I would win this primary and I don’t think it would be close.”

So said Jonathan Tasini, the would-be giant slayer, at the conclusion of a nearly one-hour interview with Gay City News on August 31.

For the past nine months, Tasini, a former journalist and longtime leader in the fight for the rights and economic security of freelance writers, has traveled New York State in what many pundits characterize as a quixotic challenge to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reelection.

Journal News

Clinton's primary foe focuses on Iraq
By GLENN BLAIN

(Original publication: September 5, 2006)

It has gone largely unnoticed in New York, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton does face a Democratic primary on Sept. 12.

Upstart Democrat Jonathan Tasini, a union organizer from Manhattan, has been waging a low-budget, grass-roots campaign against Clinton, focusing largely on the war in Iraq.

"Hillary Clinton voted for the war and continues to support the occupation," Tasini told The Journal News recently.

The Indypendant

Jonathan vs. Goliath: Taking On Clinton and the Iraq War
By Nicholas Allanach
From the August 31, 2006 issue | Posted in Local
Sen. Hillary Clinton caught a break – if an incumbent with a war chest of tens of millions in corporate money needed one – when NY1 cancelled her debate with antiwar challenger Jonathan Tasini.

The television station nixed the debate because Tasini didn’t fulfill their requirement that candidates have half a million in the bank to participate, though he polled 13 percent at the time, well over their five percent threshold rule. Critics point out that Time Warner, which owns NY1, forked over $100,000 to the Clinton campaign, which may have influenced its decision.

The Nation

Antiwar Primaries

John Nichols

Antiwar challenger Ned Lamont's defeat of prowar Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary is generally accepted as a referendum-like victory for the message that progressives have been urging the Democratic Party to embrace. But the 2006 primary season--which will see its busiest day September 12, when nine states and DC pick nominees for national seats--ought to be seen as a series of referendums on the war. Lamont's win was not the first of its kind since The Nation pledged last year to identify and support only those candidates prepared to bring a speedy end to the war ["Democrats and the War," November 28], nor, we hope, will it be the last.