Text size:

Despite money woes, he fights on

With less than two weeks before primary, cash-strapped Tasini looks to continue effort against Sen. Clinton

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

August 30, 2006

Jonathan Tasini is a rebel without a nest egg.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's anti-war challenger in the Democratic primary has nearly sapped his $50,000 life savings in a thus-far futile attempt to draw the pro-war senator into a public debate about Iraq.

"It was my emergency money, in case, God forbid, I got sick," said Tasini, munching on a turkey club earlier this week at a tavern in Manhattan. "But it's no big deal. I've lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for 19 years and I don't have kids, so I have a relatively low cost of living."

With the primary less than two weeks away, the cash-strapped Tasini, 49, may have lost his last chance to confront Clinton face-to-face. Yesterday, the state League of Women Voters scuttled a debate after Clinton refused to accept an invitation to the Sept. 6 event. (An earlier debate on NY1 News was scrapped because the station thought Tasini didn't raise enough cash to be considered a serious contender.)

"These are candidate-driven things and so far we haven't heard from Sen. Clinton," said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the league. "It's disappointing. ... But when these incumbents get so far ahead they don't want to debate."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said the senator wants to see how "the campaign develops" before agreeing to a debate.

Said Tasini: "I don't know why she's scared of me."

Asked whether Clinton was afraid of squaring off over the war, Wolfson scoffed, "Sen. Clinton talks about the war all the time."

Tasini, a garrulous labor organizer and writer who sports cowboy boots and blocky tortoise-shell glasses, is a speck in Clinton's political rearview mirror. He trails with 10 percent to Clinton's 86 percent in a Quinnipiac University Poll released last week. A recent Marist Poll shows his support at 15 percent.

Despite his backing of gay marriage, Canadian-style government-funded health care and his call for immediate troop withdrawal, Tasini has failed to make so much as a ripple in Democratic national politics, even among those who think Clinton is too conservative.

Part of Tasini's problem is that he had no experience as a fundraiser and no profile in the party before the race. Another problem is that local Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war, are either afraid of crossing the senator or accept her explanation that setting a withdrawal date could jeopardize the troops.

Tasini says it's unfair to compare him to Connecticut upstart Ned Lamont, a peace candidate who spent $4 million of his family fortune to beat Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary. Lamont also was supported by MoveOn.org, which opposes the war but hasn't thrown its support to Tasini.

All this may explain why Tasini for New York gets about a third of its cash from the cash-poor candidate himself. He's raised only about $102,000 from actual contributors, a fraction of what Clinton spends on catering and car-parking for fundraisers each year.

So far, Tasini has lent his campaign $30,000, money he never expects to recover. In addition, he has paid $13,244 for venue rentals, food and supplies, and isn't sure he'll ever recover that cash, either. And he still has to cover expenses for the last week or so of campaigning up to the Sept. 12 primary.

"Maybe I should have spent more time developing a fundraising apparatus," he said. "But the people I know aren't rich corporate lawyers or celebrities. I honestly don't know what I would have done differently."