Balboni weighing Gillibrand challenge

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A former Republican New York State Senator and state homeland security official, Mike Balboni, is weighing a challenge to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand next year, associates said today.

With the highest-profile Republicans, Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki, making no move to enter the race, supporters of Balboni, a media-friendly Long Island politician, have encouraged him to consider running, he confirmed. Balboni, a moderate, suburban Republican, left the legislature to serve as homeland security chief for Democratic Governors Eliot Spitzer and then David Paterson.

"The opportunity to serve the people continues to really drive me – and a Senate seat is something that comes up once in a lifetime," Balboni told me this afternoon. "It would be of interest to anyone who has been steeped in politics."

Balboni said that if either Giuliani or Pataki runs, "they clear the field," but that nether appears likely to take the plunge.

As for Gillibrand, who has been unable to find her popular footing after a messy selection, "she’s been very pleasant in the deaings I’ve had with her," he said.

But he suggested she'd be vulnerable in the suburbs that recently ejected long-serving Democratic executives.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1109/Balboni_weighing_Gillibrand_challenge.html