Harold Ford Jr. met yesterday with Assemblyman Vito Lopez, and the chairman of the Democratic Party’s Executive Committee for Brooklyn said he walked away “impressed.”
Lopez is also open to helping the US Senate wannabe from Tennessee get on the primary ballot in his newly adopted state.
A nod from Lopez’s committee could give Ford 12 percent of the weighted vote at the state convention — putting him halfway toward the 25 percent threshold for ballot access.
Lopez, who last year backed Caroline Kennedy for the Senate seat that instead went to Kirsten Gillibrand, thinks Ford can “connect” in a way Gillibrand hasn’t.
“What he has to him, there’s a little bit of celebrity that he has,” Lopez said after the hourlong chat at Cono & Son’s O’Pescatore Restaurant in Williamsburg.
Lopez praised the would-be candidate’s “smooth” political skills and indicated that Gillibrand boosters had reached out to him over the last few days, imploring him to go with her, but that he had barely heard from her in the last year.
He also made no effort to hide his lingering unhappiness that Gov. Paterson’s team slimed Kennedy after she pulled out of contention.
Lopez added that he wants a candidate “who can win” — but stressed that the choice would be up to his committee.