What if John Kennedy, Jr. had lived and ran in the 2000 New York Democratic U.S. senate primary against First Lady Hillary Clinton? There was some talk before he died that he was interested in running for that senate seat. If he had, who would have won? How contentious could it have been between the Kennedys and the Clintons? If Hillary had lost to JFK, Jr. would she have ran for public office again like maybe Governor of NY in 2002 or 2006?
WI: JFK, Jr. vs. HRC in the 2000 NY Dem. Senate Primary
- Thread starter CCK
- Start date
Why would Hillary run against him? She could choose another state to run in, after all.
Japhy
Banned
Besides his name Kennedy had nothing going for him. He was a dumb ass, rich, playboy, dilettante. I could absolutely see State party leaders recruiting Clinton against him. Or one of a few other people against him. There'd be a fight, but he'd get little support from anyone since no one actually respected him. It wouldn't be enough to toss the whole election but it might be enough to get the State GOP to pick someone better than Lazio when Giuliani has to drop out.
How about this: JFK Jr. runs for NY senate while Hillary waits till '02 to challenge Tim Hutchinson in Arkansas. That butterflies away the idiocy of Mark Pryor and doesn't portray HRC as much of a carpetbagger.
People always screw up the timeline here. JFK Jr. is even on those asinine "Clinton Death Watch" lists. Ridiculous. Dude died in July 1999.
Charlie Rangel and others had already approached Hillary about the Senate in late '98.
She waited until after the impeachment trial, February 16, 1999, to announce.
http://www.people.com/article/jfk-jr-run-president-interest-politics-before-death
Running George gave him a taste for executive power. His shot was the Governor's race. That's what Teddy was pushing him into and he was apparently ready to pull the trigger on it before his death....
This anecdote demonstrates that there was some degree of political savvy lurking beneath that handsome face. If he was gonna do it, he wanted to play his cards right.
The 2002 NY Governor election was completely FUBAR thanks to the Independence Party. That was also a big mid-term year for the GOP. Now granted if anyone has the overpowering, Goku Super Saiyan 3 aura of name recognition to overcome that, its JFK Jr. But still, its likely he either wisely sits out or indeed loses.
2006, then. Any Democrat lucky enough to have an election that year was anointed by the gods.
Can't see a path to the White House tho. Even if he wins in 2002....come on. He doesn't have that combination of effortless oratory, high emotional IQ, and subtle machiavellianism that is Barack Obama. The man is ASB. Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire was ridiculous for acting like JFK Jr could replicate that. At best he'd be a spoiler in the 08 Dem primary.
2016? NY Governor is a bad place to win "Progressive" bonafides......so unless he really crusades against Wall St corruption the NetRoots will either mildly tolerate or HATE him. Spitzer's AG background made him a natural for crusading against Wall St, but its easy to imagine Jr playing it safe and defaulting to center-left like Cuomo. Forget about tapping into Bernie's socialist well or outflanking HRC within the party.
2020? A return to Camelot after Trump pours a glass of Rumsfeldia Lite? Okay sure. He'd be 61 on Inauguration Day though, so he'd better have more than his looks going for him by then.
Charlie Rangel and others had already approached Hillary about the Senate in late '98.
She waited until after the impeachment trial, February 16, 1999, to announce.
http://www.people.com/article/jfk-jr-run-president-interest-politics-before-death
Running George gave him a taste for executive power. His shot was the Governor's race. That's what Teddy was pushing him into and he was apparently ready to pull the trigger on it before his death....
This anecdote demonstrates that there was some degree of political savvy lurking beneath that handsome face. If he was gonna do it, he wanted to play his cards right.
The 2002 NY Governor election was completely FUBAR thanks to the Independence Party. That was also a big mid-term year for the GOP. Now granted if anyone has the overpowering, Goku Super Saiyan 3 aura of name recognition to overcome that, its JFK Jr. But still, its likely he either wisely sits out or indeed loses.
2006, then. Any Democrat lucky enough to have an election that year was anointed by the gods.
Can't see a path to the White House tho. Even if he wins in 2002....come on. He doesn't have that combination of effortless oratory, high emotional IQ, and subtle machiavellianism that is Barack Obama. The man is ASB. Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire was ridiculous for acting like JFK Jr could replicate that. At best he'd be a spoiler in the 08 Dem primary.
2016? NY Governor is a bad place to win "Progressive" bonafides......so unless he really crusades against Wall St corruption the NetRoots will either mildly tolerate or HATE him. Spitzer's AG background made him a natural for crusading against Wall St, but its easy to imagine Jr playing it safe and defaulting to center-left like Cuomo. Forget about tapping into Bernie's socialist well or outflanking HRC within the party.
2020? A return to Camelot after Trump pours a glass of Rumsfeldia Lite? Okay sure. He'd be 61 on Inauguration Day though, so he'd better have more than his looks going for him by then.
I don't think JFK Jr. was an unintelligent man. He'd have the smarts, if he was serious about running for anything, to tap those in his family and the Kennedy's inner circle for advice on the matter. He'd have to know that he couldn't make the attempt by trading on his name alone. Being a Kennedy helps, being JFK's son helps, but he'd know that that would only get him so far.
Japhy
Banned
It's worth pointing out that Andrew Cuomo also thought he could be great Vernon in 2002 and the party rejected him outright at the time, and of course his comeback attempt in 2006 also tanked. There's no reason to assume that JFK Jr would have any better luck in using dynasty to surpass (with retrospect, questionable) talents of others in the running. And of course there's next to no chance of him say, getting the AG nomination that kept Cuomo going.
Ironically he *might* be a failure who gets the Senate Seat in 09, but there were very sound national and state reasons to go with Gillibrand. So, even then it's a long shot. Much like his never did anything sister at that point I guess an ambassadorship is an option. Though I assume any Democratic administration would have the smarts not to send him to the Court of St. James at least.
Ironically he *might* be a failure who gets the Senate Seat in 09, but there were very sound national and state reasons to go with Gillibrand. So, even then it's a long shot. Much like his never did anything sister at that point I guess an ambassadorship is an option. Though I assume any Democratic administration would have the smarts not to send him to the Court of St. James at least.
Paul V McNutt
Banned
By 2000, Hillary had 7 years as Assistant President, 12 years as Assistant Governor and 2 years as Assistant State Attorney General. She had worked 2 campaigns for President, 6 campaigns for Governor and 1 campaign for State Attorney General. She was also the point person for health care reform. What political experience did JFK Jr. have?
Wallet
Banned
Since then she had 8 years as senate, and 4 years of Secretary of State. Ran for president twice, and senate twice.
She seriously is the most qualified person to be president. Then again so was James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson
Buchanan and Johnson had no record of accomplishments, whereas Hillary has a very large record of accomplishments (good and bad).
She chooses another populous, electorally important and blue-leaning state to carpetbag a Senate seat in?
I don't think these two would challenge each other. JFK, Jr. wasn't an airhead but he was more of the kind of person to flirt with this sort of thing than to settle down, and it's very obviously worth noting New York is a pretty internally competitive state. I don't think he was interested in the Senate seat at that time, but after some butterflies, I could see him becoming interested during the Bush administration years.
Wouldn't happen, Hillary is politically savvy so she wouldn't challenge the son of a guy who is an idol to most Democrats, particularly amidst other controversy about carpetbagging and previous Clinton controversies. If JFK Jr was dead set on running for Senate in NY in 2000, she'd run elsewhere for Senate in Arkansas, Illinois, perhaps Virginia or another New England state depending on cycles and incumbency
Equally, its difficult to get JFK Jr to run for Senate in first place given he was known to be more interesting in running against Pataki for Gov in 2002
The two of them were on different trajectories before JFK Jr died, it's incredibly unlikely they'd have crossed each other in a primary
Equally, its difficult to get JFK Jr to run for Senate in first place given he was known to be more interesting in running against Pataki for Gov in 2002
The two of them were on different trajectories before JFK Jr died, it's incredibly unlikely they'd have crossed each other in a primary