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Latinos, or the law?
California Gov. Gray Davis rode a wave of Latino support to the statehouse, but in his first big test, he's gone to bat for Prop. 187 -- the law Latinos hate.
By Anthony York
[04/16/99]

War is hell -- for GOP politicians
Torn between internationalism and isolationism, Republicans try to make the best of Kosovo.
By Harry Jaffe
[04/15/99]

Miss Israel visits the Balkans
A Jewish relief agency flies a planeload of Kosovar refugees to Israel, where the country's mixed feelings about a Muslim "Greater Albania" -- and its own Arabs -- awaits them.
By Flore de Preneuf
[04/15/99]

Hoosier daddy
Presidential candidate Dan Quayle notes that Murphy Brown is long gone now, but he's still here, "fighting for the American family."
By Jake Tapper
[04/15/99]

Back from the dead
A Kosovo journalist NATO reported killed is working to get news out to refugees in Macedonia.
By Laura Rozen
[04/14/99]

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For public consumption, Clinton is sticking to her stance that she's merely "considering" entering the race for the Senate. Behind the scenes, however, her White House staff is already making plans to hire a separate New York campaign staff to get ready for the November 2000 election.

One likely Clinton hire, sources say, is David Doak, a Washington consultant who most recently ran the media campaign that helped elect Democrat Gray Davis governor of California. Doak was also part of the firm that ran New York Mayor David Dinkins' successful campaign in 1989. According to one veteran New York political consultant: "The decision has already been made. The word around New York is that she's going with David Doak."

Clinton's press office did not return phone calls Friday. Neither did Harold Ickes, the former White House advisor who is now Clinton's top political advisor on the New York race. Doak, who has publicly expressed interest in having a role in the campaign, told Salon News he has not yet been hired by Clinton. "We have not made any kind of agreement. I've talked to people in the campaign, if [campaign] is really the right word."

Asked whether he expects to be hired, Doak said, "That's totally her choice. I've been a friend for 25 years. I think the world of her. It's certainly her decision, but I'll help her any way I could."

The Hillary for Senate bandwagon took off with a bang in February, just as her husband's impeachment trial came to an end. The very day President Clinton was acquitted, she reportedly sat down with Ickes to begin talking about the Moynihan seat. Throngs of New York Democrats, including Moynihan, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel, former New York Mayor Ed Koch and many others, have urged Clinton to run, envisioning a hot race against the likely Republican contender, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- a matchup that could rival the presidential campaign in excitement, and in campaign spending as well.

The tantalizing possibility of a Clinton 2000 campaign made the covers of Time and Newsweek on March 1, after the first lady decorously confirmed her interest in late February: "I will give careful thought to a potential candidacy in order to make a decision later this year," she said in a prepared media statement. Since then, she's added little to the public record on the subject.

Clinton's silence hasn't stopped people close to her from speculating about her alleged intentions in the media. But the messages conflict. Some friends and staff members have insisted she won't run, that she's tired of the glare of the spotlight and doesn't want to endure a New York media hazing. Others tell reporters she's enthusiastic about running a campaign of her own, after years in the shadow of her husband.

In New York, knowledgeable Democrats insist that a final decision still has not been made. But they say Clinton is better organized and more informed about New York's fractious political world than has previously been reported. "She knows more about upstate New York already than Geraldine Ferraro knew at the end of the campaign," said one New York source, referring to the Queens Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate last year. "In fact, she knows more about upstate than Giuliani," the source added.

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