Although he contributed $30,000 of his own money (I could find no evidence that Clinton donated to her own campaign), Tasini never got near having the amount of money necessary for television advertising. The cynical, tactical refusal of the Clinton camp to debate him denied him "free" media, which would have exposed to a wide audience their conflicting positions on key policy issues such as her support for the war in Iraq and her position against gay marriage (a position conflicting with the presumptive next Governor, Elliot Spitzer).

It is also worth noting that six years ago, Hillary Clinton's primary challenger, Mark McMahon, a wealthy Harvard-educated, Park Avenue orthopedic surgeon took 18% of the vote or about the same as Tasini. However, McMahon spent $402,000 (about twice as much as Tasini) and even retained the services of a Manhattan public relations firm to position him with more conservative Democratic primary voters. McMahon went on to endorse her Republic rival, Rick Lazio, in the general election.

After 6 years in the Senate--studiously focused on strengthening her centrist credentials---Clinton has been unable to convince a greater proportion of the party faithful to return her to Washington. That should be worth a headline, but I guarantee you it will not. Instead Tasini, who is a man of tremendous conviction and principle, will be relegated to a footnote. Clinton will continue to play the sport of extreme politics: pandering, dodging, hairsplitting and, of course, Presidential-campaign-planning. Tonight she did not even dignify the process with a personal appearance, instead issuing only a written statement thanking the voters for the coronation.

Return to BLOG here.