With political incumbents quaking in their tasseled loafers, some New York Republicans are hoping that popular CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow can do what would have seemed impossible a mere six months ago — beat Chuck Schumer in the race for US Senate.
No one thinks knocking the hardest-working man in fund-raising off his perch will be easy. Schumer already has close to $20 million in his war chest, the most among senators.
But with blue strongholds like Massachusetts and New Jersey voting red, as well as a recent poll that had Schumer’s favorability rating plummeting to a 10-year low of 47 percent, eager Republicans are sharpening their knives.
Schumer currently has no announced challenger.
“Of course I’m honored to be mentioned for these things . . . They got my attention,” Kudlow told The Post.
While not ruling out a run, he said, “Right now I’m a CNBC broadcaster. I love my work, and I have no plans to change that.”
John Lakian, his close friend and the finance chair of a recently created committee to draw Kudlow into the race, said the nattily dressed TV star is “80 to 90 percent” behind running.
A one-time top Wall Street exec and current CEO of his own New York City consulting firm, Kudlow has been a confidant to some of the most powerful conservatives in the country.
But his life wasn’t always so charmed.
In the mid-1990s, shortly after he left his high-profile job at Bear Stearns, he admitted that he had a cocaine and alcohol problem. Kudlow, who was born Jewish, credits his conversion to Catholicism with helping him get through the difficult time.
