After successfully winning the Congressional seat vacated by Anthony "Crotch Shot" Weiner in a wacky special election last year, Rep. Bob Turner now has his sights set on Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat. Chatter about the possibility started yesterday and Turner confirmed, "I will travel to the Republican State Convention in Rochester later this week and humbly ask for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. I will respectfully ask for the Conservative nomination a few days later at that Party's convention. I have made my intentions known to the other Republican candidates in this race."
This seems like a natural move since Turner's seat would be redistricted out. However, Conservative Party chairman Mike Long tells the Post, "I think Bob got into this too late." Long has a vested interest in candidate Wendy Long, who apparently has conservative support.
Amusingly, former mayor Ed Koch, who backed Turner in the Congressional race against Democrat Mark Turner (because he wanted to spite President Obama), says he's sticking with Gillibrand: "She was in my office about two weeks ago. I told her I’m on her campaign committee. I’ll be her advance man. I'm a little old, but I'll be her advance man."
Here's Turner's full statement:
"I will travel to the Republican State Convention in Rochester later this week and humbly ask for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. I will respectfully ask for the Conservative nomination a few days later at that Party's convention. I have made my intentions known to the other Republican candidates in this race.
"I ran for the House six months ago as a private citizen fed up with what is happening in Washington. I could not sit and watch career politicians sink my nation deeper into economic crisis. Brooklyn and Queens voters, of all political parties, graciously responded by sending me to Congress. It now appears that their district has been eliminated.
"There is serious work to be done to get this economy back on track, and I will not walk away from that work now. I will run for the Senate, and I will run to win."
