Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

May 22, 2009

Israel Denies He Was Muscled Out of Race

Contrary to an earlier report, Rep. Steve Israel's (D-NY) chief of staff, Jack Pratt, denies Rahm Emanuel made threats to force his boss out the New York's U.S. Senate race, the Plum Line reports.

Said Pratt: "The idea that Rahm would threaten Steve, that's not the way their relationship goes -- they're friends. They did convey pretty effectively that [the White House] was going to support the incumbent. But it was more, `In the interests of party unity, here are the reasons you'd be better off doing something else.'"

Update: Edward-Isaac Dovere, the editor of City Hall emails: "Though there are obvious reasons to feel pressured to deny what appears in State of Israel in City Hall, the story as it appears on our website and will appear in our print edition next week is fully-sourced and vetted. Everything which appears in print relies on multiple conversations with people who have direct knowledge from Congressman Israel of the contents of his conversations with Rahm Emanuel. The denials today do not match up with what was being said up to 48 hours ago, before the story went public, about the interaction in the West Wing. Nor do they match up with private reactions from the Congressman's staff since."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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