Can Townsend Beat Cheerleader Chuck?

Remember Joe and Eileen Bailey? They are the imaginary friends of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who accompany him wherever he goes. He talks about them often.

This year, New Yorkers may finally realize that it’s only Schumer’s imaginary friends who benefit from his presence in the senate. Businessman Jay Townsend may be the person who convinces them of it.

Townsend – who announced his candidacy against Schumer last Saturday – opened his campaign with a speech which featured the Baileys. Townsend said, “Senator, instead of inventing a family that does not exist, perhaps you could find some time to listen to real New York families that are struggling to make ends meet, put their kids through school and pay the taxes and fees you impose upon them from your throne on Capitol Hill.”

He said of Schumer, “One person, more than any other, stands as a stark symbol of what is wrong with Washington. Chuck Schumer is considered the most powerful Democrat on Capitol Hill. He is the head financier, the architect, the enabler, the avatar, the cheerleader-in-chief of an Imperial Congress that turns a deaf ear to those begging to be heard; the back of a hand to those who dare disagree.”

Schumer appears to be more vulnerable than many assume.

His center-stage performances on national issues appear to reduce his popularity at home. Last September, the Marist poll had him at a job approval rating of 58%. That slipped to 47% in January when Schumer’s negative rating went to 42%. (At the end of March, Schumer was back up to 51% approval, not a heartening number in what will be a tough year for Democrats.

But New York? The state that made Hillary Clinton a senator? Liberals insist that the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts was an aberration. But underlying the Brown win is a political current that could cost Schumer his job.

Schumer may also suffer from Kirsten Gillibrand’s unpopularity. A March 29 Marist poll – the same one that showed Schumer recovering slightly from his January low – rated her at only 24% “good or excellent” approval. In a “throw the bums out” environment – with Congress at an abysmal 22.5% approval rating according to RealClearPolitics – Schumer’s “cheerleader in chief” position could cost him dearly.

And there are issues beside healthcare and the economy that may affect Schumer greatly. Scott Brown’s victory – according to his chief political advisor Eric Fernstrom – wasn’t determined by his opposition to Obamacare.

As Politico reported, Fernstrom said, “National security was a more potent issue than healthcare based on the polling we saw, on dealing with terrorists as ordinary criminals versus enemy combatants,” said Fehrnstrom. It was “an issue that worked for us across the spectrum,” he said, with the timing of the attempt putting it into particular relief. ”

“People began to realize our airports are being turned into battlefields – that the war has come home and we need to get tougher,” he said.

Schumer has been one of the most outspoken critics of the measures necessary to combat terrorism, ranging from the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program to the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used on al-Qaeda bigs such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Who, come to think of it, may yet be brought to trial in New York City rather than Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Last weekend’s failed car bomb attack in Times Square was a wake-up call to New Yorkers. Jay Townsend’s strong support for anti-terror measures may resonate strongly with Gotham’s residents. Strongly enough for them to tell Cheerleader Chuck to retire to Lake George and take the Baileys with him.