New York Magazine

Harold Ford Jr. may have decided not to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand, but that doesn't mean she's running for the Democratic Senate nomination unopposed. Unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, Jonathan Tasini, a labor activist, has been in the race since June. It's his second Senate campaign — he received 17 percent of the vote in a primary against Hillary Clinton in 2006. We talked to Tasini about why he thinks he can win, why nobody else does, and why legalized marijuana is inevitable.

By Sam Gustin
Daily Finance

In his quest to gain New York's Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Jonathan Tasini isn't expecting much financial support from Wall Street power players. After all, he thinks many of them should be in jail.

Instead, this former reporter and labor organizer is hoping to tap into the deep well of anger toward Wall Street, two years into a financial crisis that has cost more than 250,000 New Yorkers their jobs.

By Edward-Isaac Dovere
City Hall News

Jonathan Tasini has added his voice to the complaints about timing for the Manhattan County Committee’s endorsement vote for Senate, scheduled for Thursday at the State Democratic Party’s offices on Park Avenue South.

In a letter being sent to Manhattan Democratic chair Keith Wright, Tasini charges that “it is clear that the February 11th vote is being held for one purpose only: to undemocratically ram through and endorsement for my opponent.”

By N. R. Kleinfield
The New York Times

The long shot ate breakfast with his mother. She asked for campaign buttons for her friends. He handed her a dozen. She got worried. That many? Weren’t they expensive? Calm down, Mom, he said, they’re cheap.

How could she not worry? Most of the long shot’s time was spent drumming up money so he could be elected United States senator from New York.

He recently took a leave from his job to campaign full-time for the Democratic nomination. When he worked, he made $110,000 a year. Now: zero.

The long shot’s campaign chest was in the vicinity of $100,000.

It is what it is. Jonathan Tasini knows that. Last time around, pitted against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he was the 17 percent man, gathering that percentage of the vote in the 2006 Democratic primary. He settled back into his day job as a consultant for labor unions.

That was O.K. As he put it now, “There was not one day that I thought I would win.”

Now it’s primary time again, and the long shot is back in business.

New York, NY—Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, Jonathan Tasini, released the following statement today.

Today, my opponent, Kirsten Gillibrand, did what New Yorkers find increasingly troubling: she claimed she stands for one thing, while her actions contradict her public relations talking points. On WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, referring to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision that allows unlimited corporate spending on elections, my opponent said, “I think it’s terrible.”

New York, NY—Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, Jonathan Tasini, released the following statement in the wake of the Massachusetts Senate race.

The Massachusetts Senate race shows what I have been arguing for some time—there is a great rumbling among voters. Progressives can either hear the rumbling and try to capture its passion—or ignore it and let the right-wing capture it. If Kirsten Gillibrand is the Democratic nominee in New York, Democrats will lose the Senate seat.

Rather than look at the the Massachusetts Senate race as Democrats vs. Republicans, I would suggest that the race—and the New York Senate Democratic primary race—is far more about the “insiders” v. “outsiders”. Voters are angry about the dysfunction of the government, the understandable feeling that politicians are not doing the peoples’ business and, obviously, the economic crisis that has deeply scarred people.

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

The New York Times ran a front-page story (1/11/10) on the race for the Senate seat held by New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand that omits mention of the sole Democratic candidate running a serious campaign against her. Jonathan Tasini (who garnered 125,000 votes in a bid for the seat against Hillary Clinton in 2006) declared in June of last year.

Read more >

In keeping with our goal of providing in-depth interviews with those running for statewide, office, we wanted to find out who Jonathan Tasini is and why he plans to run against incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Read more >

Jonathan was on "The Perez Notes" this past Saturday with host Roberto Perez. They discussed health care reform, EFCA, his anti-war views and President Obama's troop escalation to Afghanistan. They also discussed his vision for the state of New York. Click here to listen! >

On Saturday Dec. 5, Jonathan was the featured guest at Firedoglake.com, one of the leading blogs in the country that has been a vocal proponent for real health care reform. Firedoglake is launching a series of organizing forums to make sure we continue to build a national movement for Medicare For All. Saturday's forum was moderated by progressive political activist David Swanson. Click here to read the thread! >

And then after Firedoglake, Jonathan was on Air America at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Jonathan spoke with host David Bender about the Afghanistan War and other issues. Click here to listen! >