Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)

Michael Barbaro previews a possible New York Senate bid by former Defense Department adviser Dan Senor, by my count the 1045th person to consider challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). At CPAC, Conservative Party chairman Mike Long told me that the party was looking hard at a serious candidate against Gillibrand; Barabo’s reporting suggests that this was the candidate. And just look at the resume:

An adviser to Spencer Abraham of Michigan when Mr. Abraham was a senator, he has rotated in and out of government over the last two decades. He worked briefly at the politically connected Carlyle Group, a private equity firm in Washington. After the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he became the civilian face of the coalition government, as policy adviser to the government and chief spokesman for L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq.

Ben Smith runs down the reasons why team Gillibrand isn’t broadcasting a lot of fear about this bid — a neoconservative hedge fund manager has, you could say, some potential vulnerabilities in a heavily Democratic state.