Former Congresswoman and Vice Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro said on July 7th that, “If it [the New York Senate race] were today, I’d probably say ‘Yeah, I’m going to go’.” Ferraro further commented that she would make a firm decision by December of 1997 regarding the 1998 Senate race. If she ran, Ferraro would face Rep. Charles Schumer of Brooklyn and Mark Green, New York City’s public advocate, in the Democratic primaries. Whoever wins the primary will face current Republican Senator Alfonso D’Amato in the general election. Ferraro said of D’Amato, “I think he’s eminently beatable.” It’s, ‘We really want you to run!’ It’s very different this time. People are saying please do it.”
Ferraro made a Senate bid in 1992, but lost in the primaries to Robert Abrams who later lost to D’Amato. But Ferraro feels that the loss was a reflection a last minute ad blitz inaccurately calling her ethics into question. Ferraro said of the loss, “If I lost it fairly, I probably would have said, ‘The public rejected me.’ But that is not what happened in 1991 and 1992. It wasn’t a rejection by the people. Ferraro also commented that early polling shows her to be the strongest Democratic candidate. She commented, “What I’ve found, as I go to different events around the state, the response is just amazing.”
