Politics

Steel Cage Match In New York?

May 28, 1999 / 3:57 PM EDT / AP

Hold on to your hats, New Yorkers! If Hillary Rodham Clinton enters the Senate race, it could be the state's wildest ever a sitting first lady pitted against New York City's mayor in a campaign that one political veteran predicts would be Â"the all-time meanest, nastiest race ever in New York.Â"

What started as a lark several months ago for Mrs. Clinton has taken wing as an almost-ready-for-prime-time campaign for the Senate seat being vacated next year by Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

She already has called 200 New York politicians for heart-to-hearts, is learning the difference between Owego and Oswego, has had New York luminaries for sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom and apparently wants to spend her summer vacation in the wilds of the Adirondacks or the windswept vistas of eastern Long Island.

Mrs. Clinton has gone so far as to ask state Democratic Chairwoman Judith Hope to scout out living rooms in rural upstate New York where the folks might want to share coffee and cookies with a first lady.

President and Mrs. Clinton are vacationing in Florida over the Memorial Day weekend. When they return, top advisers say, she will either announce she is not running or press ahead, forming an exploratory committee in late June or early July and kicking off a full-fledged candidacy sometime in the fall or later.

Hope and other advisers expect the Yale Law School-educated woman who has never worked, lived or studied in New York to enter the race, which could pit her against the quintessential New Yorker, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

His fans, and enemies, say he is as tough as they come a former federal prosecutor not known for his social skills.

Â"Giuliani, because of his nature, will throw every vile charge he can dream up at her,Â" said former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, a Democrat. Â"I think she can beat him, but it will be a very tough race.Â"

Other prominent New York Democrats agree with Koch.

Â"I think Rudy and company will fight a pretty nasty battle,Â" said former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, who beat Giuliani in 1989 only to lose to him in 1993.

Â"It could be the all-time meanest, nastiest race ever in New York,Â" state Comptroller H. Carl McCall said.

Should Mrs. Clinton run, New York's political pros say she will not only face a brutal campaign, but could wind up hurting Democrats elsewhere.

And, on the Republican side, one veteran GOP operative thinks the price of beating her may be so high as to leave any GOP winner with a Â"Pyrrhic victory.Â"

Â"She's going to take advantage of how she's perceived right now, which is as first lady, mother, wronged wife, feminist champion, humanitarian, martyr. She's going to run as St. Joan of Arc ... Eleanor Roosevelt reincarnated,Â" GOP consultant Jay Severin said.

Â"The sobering news for Republicans is that anybody who plans to beat her is gong to have to knock her off every one of those pedestals ... and the cost of doing that is very high,Â" the Republican strategist added.

In addition to being attacked as a carpetbagger, Mrs. Clinton will face questions again over Whitewater, Travelgate, her good fortune investing in cattle futures, the billing practices of her old law firm and her husband's infidelity.