p>The AP (3/15, Zuckerbrod) reports, “Tipper Gore is weighing an overture from Democrats to run for her husband’s old Senate seat from Tennessee, sources close to her said Thursday. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Democrats urged Mrs. Gore to run after Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., announced last Friday that he would not seek re-election.” One of the sources “said Mrs. Gore was committed to public service and believed she owed it to herself to give some thought to a run.”
Her husband, Al Gore, “held the Senate seat from 1985 to 1993, before becoming vice president. Gore said he would not run for his old seat immediately after Thompson made his announcement.”
One Democratic operative “close to the Gores, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mrs. Gore had received a handful of overtures from Democrats urging her to consider running for the Senate and Mrs. Gore was weighing them.” However, the official “said there was some doubt Mrs. Gore would run, given her tendency to shrink from the limelight during the presidential campaign and her general unease about the national political process.” Still, the official, “said it was telling that Mrs. Gore did not reject the overtures out of hand.”
The New York Post’s (3/15) ‘Page Six’ column reports, “While Al Gore says he’s not interested in running for the Tennessee Senate seat being vacated this year by the GOP’s Fred Thompson, Democratic bigwigs are hoping Al’s wife, Tipper, will allow herself to be drafted.” Tipper “has never had much love for politics, but the chance to follow the wife of her husband’s former running mate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, into the Senate might prove irresistible.”
Until Thompson “formally announced 12 days ago that he was quitting, the Dems hadn’t bothered to put up a serious candidate. But now the seat (vital to the balance of power in the Senate) is considered very winnable, and Tipper would have a great shot at doing just that.”
She’s “popular in the family’s home state and the Gore name is legend there — even if Al couldn’t carry Tennessee in the squeaker presidential election of 2000.” Some in the party are “hoping Hillary can persuade Tipper it’s a good move. The two women actually get on pretty well together, despite the tensions that arose between their husbands, and Hillary can honestly say she’s enjoying her new role as a lawmaker in her own right.”
