Harold Ford, Jr. is having money throw at him by Wall Street to run for Senate in New York.

In New York, Mr. Ford took a job as vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, where he cultivated close ties to many of the Wall Street executives who are now encouraging him to run. A telegenic politician, he has also maintained a high profile through NBC and MSNBC, which feature him as a regular political commentator.

New Yorkers are unusually welcoming to political newcomers, having elected Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Senate just two years after she moved from Arkansas and Robert F. Kennedy, a Massachusetts native, in 1964.

Mr. Ford declined to be interviewed.

Some of the donors who have urged Mr. Ford to consider a run expressed alarm as Ms. Gillibrand, who as a congresswoman represented a conservative upstate district, has abandoned some of her previous positions on issues like gun control and immigration as she prepares to run statewide. Several executives interested in a Ford candidacy said that Ms. Gillibrand’s positions echoed Mr. Schumer’s and that the state needed a second independent voice in the Senate.

via Harold Ford Weighs a Challenge to Gillibrand – NYTimes.com.

Kennedy and Clinton had national star power and connections, Mr. Ford it seems just has the connections. Right now my money’s on Kristen Gillibrand even if the folks who ruined our economy are betting their bonuses on Harold Ford, Jr. Gillibrand has been either silent about this or her response has been ignored.

If Ford, Jr. mounts a successful bid in New York state, it may just mean something important about the knee capping nature of New York Democratic politics and the dire hopes for a successful politician who happens to be black and runs for state wide office in the deep south.