Chuck Schumer may be turning cartwheels this morning after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announced he’s not running for re-election next year – creating a mile-wide opening for New York’s senior senator to ascend to a major position of power in Washington D.C.

Considered his party’s political architect in the U.S. Senate, Schumer has the chance to be the first New Yorker to lead a party caucus since the leadership positions were created nearly 100 years ago. Although Dick Durbin is officially the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate as its whip, Schumer is six years younger than the Illinois lawmaker and considered Reid’s real heir apparent.

From his dogged Democratic primary win when he first ran for the State Assembly fresh out of law school in 1974 (and he can still rattle off the exact vote totals) to his first run for the U.S. Senate in 1998, Schumer is a tireless campaigner. It’s hard to imagine a political reality where he doesn’t get what he wants.

Expect Schumer to try to find a way for Democrats to thread the needle and somehow recapture the majority in the Senate next year. New York – which has been pushed to the side in Washington – could suddenly see a resurgence should Schumer become majority leader and Hillary Clinton re-enter the White House.

But this scenario is also a Republican fundraiser’s dream with New York hated by so much of Red State U.S.A. What better way to get someone to pony up some campaign cash in Wyoming than talk about those kale-eaters in Brooklyn? And with the borough the rumored home of Clinton’s campaign headquarters, it’s increasingly clear why party leaders thought there would be some Kings County overkill if they held its national convention there.

Meanwhile, other Democratic leaders in the Senate may want to hire a food taster;  there may soon be a run on Robert Caro’s LBJ biography in Park Slope.

 

Bob Hardt