From the
New York Daily News:
Dr. Antonia Novello, New York’s state health commissioner for the past six years and a former U.S. surgeon general, is considering a possible challenge to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2006 re-election bid, top New York political leaders said Monday.
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Novello served as surgeon general from 1990 to 1993 under then-President George H.W. Bush.
While Novello has been Republican Gov. George Pataki’s health commissioner since mid-1999, she and the governor disagree on the abortion issue. She is anti-abortion while he has been a supporter of abortion rights.
Pataki said Monday he had not talked with Novello about a possible run against Clinton, but that if she did run, “she’d obviously be a very, very strong candidate.”
Edward Cox, a Manhattan lawyer and a son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, is also eyeing the Senate race on the Republican side as are two other little-known contenders, former Wall Street public relations executive Adam Brecht and tax lawyer William Brenner. Some Republicans are also encouraging Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro to run for the Senate.
