May 22, 2006
Dodd's Itch....
We hear that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is on the verge of announcing publicly that he's actively considering a 2008 presidential bid. Dodd today notified several national Democrats of his plans.
Dodd spoke exclusively to David Lightman, the Washington bureau chief of the Hartford Courtant.
Dodd told the AP last month that he had an "itch" to make a run, adding that it "could grow" or "could disappear."
Evidently it has grown.
Dodd flirted with a presidential bid in 2004. He is a former general chair of the Democratic National Committee and has spent 26 years in the Senate.
Oh, and Mark Warner -- that Mark Warner -- was once Dodd's body guy.
Update: From Lightman's article:
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said today he has "decided to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008."The Connecticut Democrat will hire staff, raise money and travel around the country in the next few months as he tries to enlist support.
Dodd made it clear Monday that he has thought carefully about this undertaking. He spoke confidently and rapidly about his plans, and his tone was unusually serious. Dodd often injects humor or even gossip into his conversation. Not this time.
He explained that after weeks of talking with key advisers he decided to proceed last month during dinner with his wife, Jackie, at Jack's American Bistro and Wine Bar in Old Saybrook. Jackie Dodd, a savvy Washington player who was an executive at the Export-Import Bank and is now an international business consultant, told her husband he should lay the groundwork to run.
Dodd turned to old friends who have advised him for years, including Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, his first Senate chief of staff in the early 1980s; Douglas Sosnik, another former chief of staff who became President Clinton's political director; former Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., an old friend who ran for president in 1984; former Minnesota Rep. Richard M. Nolan, and pollster Stanley Greenberg, DeLauro's husband and a longtime Dodd adviser.
DeLauro was unequivocal. "This is someone who is incredibly effective, a unifying person," she said Monday. Forget any concerns about being tagged as a New England liberal, DeLauro advised.
[MARC AMBINDER and JONATHAN MARTIN]
Posted at 09:04 PM
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