Fwd: NY Politico story

From:tflournoy11@gmail.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-01-13 02:41 Subject: Fwd: NY Politico story

> > ICYMI > Not ready for Hillary just yet > > By Dana Rubinstein 5:17 a.m. | Jan. 9, 2015 1 follow this reporter > > Letitia James, New York City’s public advocate and a staunch progressive, still remembers the time Hillary Clinton asked for her endorsement during the 2008 presidential race. > > “I was in the ladies room when she called me and she said, ‘Hi, this is Hillary.’ And I said ‘Hillary who?’” > > James endorsed the former U.S. senator from New York and will endorse her if she runs this time around, too. > > There are plenty of Democratic elected officials like James in Hillary Clinton’s adopted home state, ones who were in the vast majority of the local political firmament that supported Clinton last time and are eager to wave the flag ahead of any official announcement of her presumptive bid for president. > > There are also, for now, plenty who aren't. > > Over the past week, Capital reached out to more than two dozen New York Democrats, including all 19 members of the City Council’s “progressive caucus” and asked them to talk about the presidential election. > > Several Democrats were more than ready to declare. > > “Were you at the funeral?” asked Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, when reached by cell phone the day of Mario Cuomo’s funeral. > > Clinton was there and “she looked fabulous,” “stunningly beautiful,” "fantastic," "radiant" and “presidential,” said Brewer, adding, “I’m a Hillary supporter, that’s all I know.” > > Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, a progressive whose district is in northwest Queens, and who, when he was a Democratic state committeeman in 2008, went to pro-Hillary rallies with his mother, was similarly effusive. > > “If Hillary Clinton decides to run, which I would wholeheartedly encourage her to do, I think it would be a great thing for New York and a great thing for the country,” he said. > > Of the 19 members of the Council's progressive caucus, 15 had no on-the-record comment. > > Two of the members who did comment were equivocal. > > “I haven’t even started thinking about that,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, a member of the Council’s progressive caucus from Manhattan. “I’m just focused on the next year.” > > Challenged on the question of whether he could possibly have no idea of who he might support when the time comes, Kallos said, "Not even the foggiest. I think I’m spending all of my time focusing on stopping the [East 91st Street] marine transfer station and getting laws passed in the next year. Not even at 2016 yet. But it sounds like a fun article to be writing.” > > Then he recounted, unbidden, a recent episode of "Alpha House" that featured a cameo appearance by Elizabeth Warren. > > There are plenty of reasons why a New York Democrat, cold-called in early 2015 by a reporter, might equivocate, or be loath to address the issue of 2016 in any way. > > Possible, perfectly legitimate reasons for this hesitation include: a genuine lack of enthusiasm for Clinton's still-unannounced candidacy, and a desire to see what the rest of the field looks like; a desire to be courted before committing; a sense that questions like "who are you supporting in 2016," asked in the service of speculative, pre-announcement stories like this one, are premature. > > There's also Andrew Cuomo to think of. > > "I certainly think that our incumbent governor would be a strong presidential candidate, though there is no real indication that he is preparing to run, even in the absence of a Hillary Clinton candidacy," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who was one of the few established New York Democrats to back Barack Obama against Clinton in 2008, when he was an assemblyman. > > Jeffries said it was too soon to comment on what is still a "hypothetical" primary field. > > "I don't want to comment on who I may or may not support in the absence of any real understanding as to whether she is going to run or not," he said. > > (Related, possibly: Jeffries links on his House website to a New York Times article, in which he is quoted, headlined, "Eye on 2016, Clintons Rebuild Bonds With Blacks.") > > Another progressive councilmember, who would only speak on background, said, "Look, this is very challenging for me." > > The councilmember described having “mixed feelings” about Clinton’s "cautious" approach to immigration, climate change and economic justice. > > “I feel that she is incredibly calculating in her ideology and everything is perfectly modulated according to the calculus of the moment,” the member said. “And that for much of her career she’s calculated that a more moderate stance is to her advantage. And to that point, I don’t know what’s in her heart.” > > That council member is already dreading the coming "institutional pressure" to support Clinton from on high: “There will be very senior officials in New York who will commit to her, and they will take it upon themselves to round up local electeds and people who resist that will come under pressure, no doubt.” > > Karim Camara, an assemblyman from Brooklyn who, like Jeffries, supported Barack Obama in 2008, knows something about that. > > “There was a lot of ‘You’re a dead man walking’ after [we] supported President Obama,” he said. “A lot of people thought because this was our home state that we would never be in office again because of that decision.” > > He has yet to decide where he stands in the coming election. > > Nor has Councilman Dan Garodnick, a moderate-for-New York councilman who supported Clinton in 2008. > > “I’m waiting for the first candidate to jump into the fray,” he said. > > And then what will happen? > > “I don’t know," he said. "I’m waiting to see who the candidates are.” > > So is Donovan Richards, a councilman from Queens whose former boss, James Sanders, supported Obama in 2008. > > “I’m watching to see who is going to stand on the side of history that will ensure we have more economic equality in the U.S.,” he said. > > A progressive caucus member, Richards’ district in Far Rockaway has a huge concentration of public housing, and issues involving poverty are, therefore, important to him. > > “You know what, I’m listening to her,” he said, about Clinton. “I think that she started to take a better tone in particular in this area [of income inequality] and I’m just looking to hear more of it.” > > The highest-profile New York advocate on that issue, Mayor Bill de Blasio, will almost certainly back Clinton if and when the time comes. > > When asked for comment, a de Blasio spokesman referred Capital to the mayor's November conversation with Politico, during which he expressed confidence in Clinton's ability to confront growing concerns about economic inequality. He'll almost certainly back Clinton if she runs, having managed her Senate campaign in 2000, back when he was still a professional political operative. > > “If she runs, I think New York will definitely support her,” said Mark Weprin, a councilman from Queens who is backing Clinton if she runs. “I think all the major elected officials will get behind her. I think New York is a foregone conclusion.” > >