CNBC host and supply-side economist Larry Kudlow will not say — among encouragement from a group of New York free market champions — if he’s considering challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer for his New York Senate seat up for election this year.
“The only thing I’ve said and I’ll continue to say is I’m honored to be considered,” Kudlow told The Daily Caller. “I’m really flattered.”
An online draft movement — draftkudlow.com — is encouraging Kudlow to enter the race as a Republican. The group, which emerged after Massachusetts elected Republican Scott Brown to the Senate this week, says on its Web site that it’s time “deliver Chuck Schumer his own Scott Brown.”
“Until Scott Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate by the loopy liberals in Massachusetts, nobody thought it was possible to beat Schumer. Now the game has changed,” the Web site reads.
Kudlow, reached by phone, declined to elaborate, only saying: “It’s too soon.” Yet he said “defeating Senator Schumer would be a noble cause.”
In its pitch for Kudlow, the group argues “the thoughtful, well-spoken and original analyst is one of the most effective debaters on the right.”
The draft movement is co-chaired by Dr. David Tukey, a former McCain-Palin Deputy Regional Campaign Manager, and Michael Caputo, a speechwriter for former Rep. Jack Kemp.
Tukey said the idea came about as he and some “free-market guys who get together pretty frequently” in New York City had a conversation about how their ideal officeholder would be someone who “really understands fiscal policy.”
Using that perspective, Tukey said, they thought of Kudlow. While they had been kicking around the idea around for some time of suggesting the supply-sider for office, he said that after Brown’s “historic win on Tuesday night, we decided maybe it was really time to go live with it.”
Tukey said he doesn’t know Kudlow and hasn’t heard from the CNBC host since the group launched the site.
“Right now we’re just getting the idea out there and seeing what will happen,” Tukey said.
Kudlow is the founder and chief executive of Kudlow and Company, an economic research and consulting firm. He also anchors CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report,” co-anchors CNBC’s “The Call and hosts “The Larry Kudlow Show” on WABC Radio. Last year, Kudlow had been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for the Senate in Connecticut, though he opted against a run.
Schumer, in his third term in the Senate, was elected in 2004 with more than 70 percent of the vote. He is expected to run for a fourth term in November. His office did immediately return a reporter’s request for comment.
Others involved in the drafting effort are:
- Bryan Beshore, an internet entrepreneur
- Katie Lyn McDonald a Ticonderoga County Conservative Party committee woman
- Boris Epshteyn, communications aide for McCain-Palin
- Matthew Pizzi, an entrepreneur and investment professional
- Andrew J. Miller, Tea Party Patriots
- Viola Hunter, former vice chairman of New York State Conservative Party
- Brett Joshpe, an attorney and co-author of “Why You’re Wrong About the Right”
- Eric Miller, Tea Party Patriots
- John R. Lakian, Club for Growth
- John Abraham, vice chair Erie County Conservative Party Executive Committee
- Harold R. Schroeder, executive secretary Erie County Conservative Party Executive Committee.