Mayor Bloomberg, who has had a frosty relationship with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and disagrees with her on the Senate health bill, is open to backing former US Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in a Democratic primary challenge, sources told The Post.
“There is an openness to [Ford],” one source said.
Bloomberg had pushed behind the scenes for Caroline Kennedy for the senate seat that Gov. Paterson ultimately appointed Gillibrand to. The mayor and the now-senator have never had a good relationship.
The Post reported in November that Ford was toying with the idea of a Gillibrand challenge — and exclusively reported that Bloomberg had a tense phone call with the senator during which he voiced his unhappiness with the Senate’s version of the health-reform bill.
Ford is an ex-congressman from Tennessee who moved to New York after an unsuccessful run for Senate in his home state in 2006.
A strong fund-raiser, he’s been meeting for weeks with major donors.
Ford, an African-American, could do well in the city, where minority voters were the majority for the first time ever in last year’s election.
He could potentially do well among city voters, where minority voters were the majority for the first time ever in last year’s election. And Gillibrand, despite strong fundraising and backing from Sen. Charles Schumer and the White House, has remained vulnerable in polls to a challenge.
He’s been meeting for weeks with major donors, and he has been quietly pushed by Democratic rainmakers Steve Rattner and Maureen White – who are close to Bloomberg, Schumer and the White House, sources said.
But Ford as a congressman took stands against gay marriage and in favor of gun rights that could put him at odds with Democratic primary voters – and with some of Bloomberg’s positions.
Still, one source familiar with Bloomberg’s thinking said, “Why automatically re-up with her?”