Like Agent Smith in The Matrix, Hillary Clinton may have been thought to be deleted from the political process, but rumors persist that she may spring back to political life by running for mayor of New York.
Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who harbors his own ambitions that include running for mayor of New York, told The Real Deal on Saturday that he won’t make a decision until Hillary decides whether the job is for her. He stated, “If Hillary runs, I won’t.” Catsimatidis spoke with Hillary and asserted that she wouldn’t rule out the possibility, adding, “I spoke to her about it but she didn’t indicate or signal to me [whether she would run]. She didn’t say never; she didn’t say no. In my personal opinion it’s 50-50.”
Catsimatidis ran in the 2013 New York mayoral primary as a Republican, but lost to Joe Lhota.
Meanwhile, Politico reports that former Pennsylvania governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell, who is quite close to the Clintons, opined, “I’m certain Trump will screw up enough that by the fall of ’18, Hillary’s numbers will be way up again.”
There are those who think Hillary is done with running for office, however; former two-term Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas said, “On a personal level, I lost a race in 2014, and it was on a much, much smaller scale than what she lost . . . The Democratic Party does need new blood, new faces, and I don’t think Bill or Hillary Clinton would ever want to get back and run for anything — I don’t think a team of mules could drag them to do that,”
Hillary’s close confidante Neera Tanden, who runs the Center for American Progress, bluntly said, “I don’t expect her to ever run for any elected office again.”
Yet even if Hillary does not run, there are strong rumors that she and husband Bill want to be involved in the future of the Democratic Party; Politico reports that she has been discussing working with Barack Obama’s Organizing For Action. She has also mentioned that she would like to help build avenues for young Democrats to reach prominence.
Hillary has been analyzing election results with former campaign manager Robby Mook and his team; one friend of hers told Politico, “She understands that a forensic exam of the campaign is necessary, not only for her, but for the party and other electeds, and for the investors in the campaign. People want to know that their investment was treated with respect, but that their mistakes wouldn’t be repeated.”
Mack McLarty, Bill Clinton’s first White House chief of staff, offered, “Many Democratic politicians have been personally influenced or share direct ties to President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, or both. That history goes back decades. And, despite the grave disappointment, resilience is in the Clintons’ DNA. So, while I certainly don’t expect to see them trying to assert their authority, I think there will be natural and welcome opportunities for them to engage.”
Politico stated that the Clintons are giving the battle for the DNC chairmanship a wide berth, as it is “widely seen as a Clinton-Sanders proxy fight.”
But they will likely emerge in 2017 as some of the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial and senatorial candidates who supported Hillary run for office, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, Orlando attorney John Morgan, and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, and New Jersey governor hopeful Phil Murphy.
“She didn’t say never; she didn’t say no. In my personal opinion it’s 50-50.”
Prospective NY mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, on whether Hillary is interested in the job
South Carolina Chairman Jaime Harrison, a candidate to lead the DNC, concluded, “They believe in the party and they want to leave this party in a better position than where they found it, and I think [they and the Obamas] have an obligation to the party, because the party has given them so much. If I’m DNC chair, that’s one of the first calls I’m going to make, to ask them to play that ambassador role.”
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper echoed, “Thirty-four states have both their House and Senate in Republican hands, so there’s a larger discussion [to be had]. It involves not just policy, but it involves funding, and she’s going to be a respected voice who’s been in just about every situation imaginable.”