Denise O'Donnell?

A feature of the race for Attorney General, dominated as it is by two well-known guys, Andrew and Mark, is that there might be room up the middle for a third candidate to slip through. That, at least, is what the five other people in the race are hoping. The one who, in a superficial political calculation, looks best on paper (as detractors as well as supporters note) is probably Denise O'Donnell: The only woman, the only upstater, she's a career federal prosecutor from Buffalo who was U.S. Attorney for the Western District in Clinton's second term. But O'Donnell's campaign, being run by her son Jack, a former Schumer aide, hasn't drawn much attention. And her fundraising has lagged at the back of the pack, making it a bit hard to see how she would break out ahead of the better known candidates. An invitation for an O'Donnell fundraiser that just came my way, however, seems to suggest another story. The chairs include Robin Chandler Duke and Victor Kovner, along with a whole bunch of lawyers from the big Manhattan firms and members of the vast Crotty clan. Mary Jo White is backing her and Janet Reno is flying in for another fundraiser. In a brief interview yesterday, O'Donnell came out swinging. "There are six career politicians and one professional prosecutor" running for the office, she said. I asked whether she thought any of the six men is qualified to do the job. "They are not."