A Friday evening in August, on PBS, is not the ideal context for breaking a story about one of the President’s senior advisors and closest friends contemplating a career changing run for the Senate. But Tribune editorial page editor Bruce Dold chose Friday’s Chicago Tonight to drop his scoop that Valerie Jarrett may run for the Senate seat vacated by her boss. (”I think there’s some scuttlebutt that maybe someone like Valerie Jarrett may leave the Administration and come back and run,” he said at the 6:22 mark in this WTTW’s video. Note that none of Dold’s fellow panelists, included noted political observer Mike North, so much as arched an eyebrow at his report.)
The implication of Dold’s report is that the President’s Senior Advisor, who is involved with nearly every aspect of the administration and spurned attempts to appoint her to the same seat last fall, is thinking of abandoning the White House after 7 months in favor of a hotly-contested, 14 month race with two primary opponents, one a record-breaking fundraiser, protege of the President who holds statewide office, the other a fellow African American woman, and a strong GOP candidate waiting. (The GOP badly wants to win Obama’s seat– imagine if they could defeat his close friend and counselor while doing so.)
We’re skeptical.
Outside of Dold’s note on Chicago Toight, there has been a discernible lack of chatter online about Jarrett’s possible candidacy. (Meaning none.) Since Friday evening, the Tribune has mentioned Jarrett four times without tying her to the Senate race.
Dold qualified his report by saying “someone like Valerie Jarrett” might leave the White House to “come back” to Illinois to run. Obama’s only other senior from Illinois is David Axelrod– perhaps Dold is suggesting that he’ll be a candidate?
We’re generally inclined to give the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dold the benefit of the doubt– after all, he’s broken more stories by 9 am than we ever will. Maybe he really does have a bead on what would be one of the biggest political stories of the year, and has chosen not to share it with any of his newspaper’s reporters. But we’re betting that Dold got caught up in the excitement of being on a televised coffee klatsch (with buzzing cell phones) and made a mistake.
