Rep. Bob Turner is being touted as an ideal challenger for Democratic U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand if his Queens-Brooklyn district is swept off the political map.
Brooklyn GOP chairman Craig Eaton is calling on other county Republican leaders to put aside differences and rally around Turner against Gillibrand in the fall election. “Bob Turner can beat Kirsten Gillibrand — I know that and so will the public,” Eaton wrote in a confidential email to other county chairs.
The following is a statement released by Bob Turner:
“I will travel to the Republican State Convention in Rochester later this week and humbly ask for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. I will respectfully ask for the Conservative nomination a few days later at that Party’s convention. I have made my intentions known to the other Republican candidates in this race.
“I ran for the House six months ago as a private citizen fed up with what is happening in Washington. I could not sit and watch career politicians sink my nation deeper into economic crisis. Brooklyn and Queens voters, of all political parties, graciously responded by sending me to Congress. It now appears that their district has been eliminated.
“There is serious work to be done to get this economy back on track, and I will not walk away from that work now. I will run for the Senate, and I will run to win.”
(Source: NY Daily News)
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8 Responses
Finally, someone is taking my suggestion.
Candidates gerrymandered out of a job always attract sympathy, and due to the odd shaped district he won in, he is already well known through the Democrats strongholds in Brooklyn and Queens – areas where a Republican needs to make inroads in order to win.
That will be a hard fight, but if anyone has a chance it is probably him.
…not as hard a fight as you think. Gillibrand doesn’t have much of a record…except her meaningless pronouncements. Watch Turner win big.
Isn’t he a neophyte with no record. At least they can’t bring up his record.
Turner is a real mentsch, an authentic conservative who has a proven record of success in business.
He will easily defeat the lightweight Gillibrand, who is simply a “yes-woman” for Chuck Schumer.
Mottel1: Shes a democrat in New York, is she can put a coherent sentence together she will be hard to beat.
The great thing with Turner on top of the ticket is not as much if he will win, likely not, but how it will help Republican candidates.
Close races in New York will enjoy having a popular Republican on the near top of the ballot (below Obama of course) in a even somewhat tight race. In 2010, a few races (the AG and Comptroller race are the big ones as well as few congress seats) I feel went Democratic because Paladino imploded and the big races were obvious. For example, Gillibrand’s opponent started off promising and in the end was rocked nearly as much as Paladino and the candidate against Schumer, a percentage point difference to my memory.
DQB
I think this is a winnable race. He will have more then enough support from brooklyn, queens. This is a brilliant move by him. Alot depends on the presidency. If Obama loses, so will Gilibrand and farkert as well