Posted on 05/02/2005 10:37:03 AM PDT by areafiftyone
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, a top New York political leader said Monday.
Michael Long, state chairman of New York's Conservative Party, said he met with Novello about two weeks ago in New York City to discuss a possible run by her against the former first lady.
"I had a very brief conversation with her and talked about the plusses and minuses," Long said.
"I didn't encourage her or discourage her," Long said.
There was no immediate comment from the Puerto Rican-born Novello, who has never run for public office.
The Conservative Party chairman said the meeting was arranged by mutual acquaintances of the two. Long declined to say who had set up the meeting.
Ryan Moses, executive director of the state Republican Party, said Novello has not met with state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik about such a race.
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.
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.
The possibility that Novello might be interested in the Senate race was first reported in the Monday editions of Albany's Times Union newspaper.
Here is some Bio info on her:
Antonia Novello was born Antonia Coello in Fajardo, Puerto Rico on August 23, 1944. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras in 1965 and her M.D. degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine at San Juan in 1970. She then completed her internship and residency in nephrology at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Novello remained at Michigan in 1973-1974 on a fellowship in the Department of Internal Medicine, and spent the following year on a fellowship in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University. From 1976 to 1978, she was in private practice in pediatrics in Springfield, Virginia.
In 1978, Novello joined the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, her first assignment being as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She held various positions at NIH, rising to the job of Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986. She also served as Coordinator for AIDS Research for NICHD from September, 1987. In this role, she developed a particular interest in pediatric AIDS.
During her years at NIH, Novello earned an M.P.H. degree from the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1982. From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. Novello also made major contributions to the drafting and enactment of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 while assigned to the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
Antonia Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President Bush, beginning her tenure on March 9, 1990. She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the position.
During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as on underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She played an important role in launching the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was actively involved in working with other organizations to promote immunization of children and childhood injury prevention efforts. She spoke out often and forcefully about illegal underage drinking, and called upon the Health and Human Services Inspector General to issue a series of eight reports on the subject. Novello also similarly worked to discourage illegal tobacco use by young people, and repeatedly criticized the tobacco industry for appealing to the youth market through the use of cartoon characters such as "Joe Camel." A workshop that she convened led to the emergence of a National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.
Novello remained in the post of Surgeon General through June 30, 1993. She then served as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Special Representative for Health and Nutrition from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, she became Visiting Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Novello became Commissioner of Health for the State of New York in 1999.
I can only wish she would run. But I have this gut feeling the Repubs are going to have a poor candidate like they always do here in NYS.
Does anyone remember Antonio Novello? I just don't think she would make a good candidate on the stump. Way too stiff. Besides I have my doubts that Novello would win a big percentage of the Hispanic vote simply because she is Puerto Rican.
Has anyone heard that Jeanine Pirro--the Westchester County DA who is always on FOX--is thinking of running. I think she would give Hillary a much bigger scare than Novello despite lacking the ability to claim minority status.
Pirro has her sights on Attorney General, which I think is a mistake. She should run against Hillary. However, her husband's ethical problems are going to make any run difficult for her.
Jeanine Piro would not be able to win against Hillary. She's a good DA but that's not enough to beat Hillary.
FYI..Pirro wold like to run for state-wide office, but she can't stand the glare of a high-profile race...Her husband's dirty, very dirty, he did some prison time, but got off easy, with the general consensus NOT to smear her with the sins of her husband...but, Hillary's minions would have no sucj scruples..
you saw the news about Pirro today, about the leak from her office through her husband to the Gambinos (allegedly)? Curtis and Kuby were talking about it this morning, I am not sure when it breaks in the newspapers.
I live in Westchester. Pirro has an albatrose around her neck with her husband.
oh, it made the paper already:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/305674p-261568c.html
she's toast.
Yep, drip, drip,drip. She's making the rounds at Republican Dinners to attract just enough attention and speculation to see if it drives out the negative hubby news. It has and it's damaging.
As a bonus she has a member of the clergy in the family. Remember Father Guido Sarducci?
any allegations of "mob ties" to an italian politician are typically accepted as "de-facto" by the sheeple who are drowning in re-runs of the godfather and the sopranos.
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