SALON

Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010 5:45 PM UTC

Wall Street’s favorite candidate: I will run again!

Reshma Saujani, the Wall Street-backed challenger to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, loses huge -- but says she'll be back

By

Topics: 2010 Elections, War Room, Michael Bloomberg, New York, New York City,

Wall Street's favorite candidate: I will run again!Reshma Saujani

Wall Street-backed former hedge funder Reshma Saujani launched a weird, intensely negative primary challenge against popular, longtime New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. New York’s worst people — the ones who also attempted to foist Harold Ford on us, also for no good reason — wanted Saujani in Congress. Saujani’s schizophrenic message (Maloney takes Wall Street money, Saujani will be kinder to job-creating Wall Street) was consistent only in its nastiness toward Maloney, whom she was constantly calling corrupt and dumb.

Then Saujani lost. By a ridiculous margin. Eighty-one to 19 percent, to be exact. It’s a margin that ought to seriously embarrass Saujani boosters like Steve Rattner, Maureen White and Mike Bloomberg’s longtime partner Diana Taylor — in other words, the richest and most theoretically powerful people in all of New York. (“We ran against the establishment,” Saujani told her supporters last night, to what I can only assume were howls of laughter.)

But she’s not giving up! Reshma Saujani will run again, she promises.

“I’m definitely running again. What we built was a movement,” she told The Local East Village at The Press Box bar on the Upper East Side, where she held her election night party yesterday. “There’s no way I’m going to be one of those folks who runs, loses, and you never see them again. We started something, and we’re going to finish it.”

This is exciting news. The Saujani campaign brought some much-needed mirth to the otherwise boring Democratic races in New York. (Seriously, who could stay awake for Schneiderman versus Rice?) She’s already lost big to Maloney, though, so maybe next time Saujani runs against someone who is overwhelmingly popular and largely effective, while staking out vague positions that don’t really differentiate her but seem to suggest that she’s an avatar for more powerful forces, she should pick a different incumbent. Jerry Nadler?

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 15 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations