How The NY Post Scooped NY Times On Harold Ford’s Decision Not To Run

Sometimes the best laid plans get undone in the most pedestrian way. Tonight news broke of Harold Ford‘s decision not to run for New York Senate office currently held by Kristen Gillibrand. The once rising star in the Democratic party had a rough number of weeks in the NY press and blogs, and even his announcement not to run somehow, and fittingly, didn’t work out quite like it was supposed to – with a Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez spilling the beans to the NY Post.

Insiders say Ford’s plan for stepping out of the ring began to be hatched late Sunday evening with a feeler to the NY Times Op-Ed page, gauging their interest in a piece from Ford on why he would not be running for Senate. It wasn’t until Monday morning that Ford would make the final decision not to run, and the Times subsequently agreed to run his piece at 9pm Monday evening. Further, Ford’s office planned a coordinated outreach at 8:30 PM with both New York and national media outlets, so that everyone would be made aware of the imminent NYT Op-Ed at the same time.

So much for that plan.

Earlier on Monday evening, Ford made some political courtesy calls, including one to Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez, who had been been a big supporter of the native Tennessean. Somehow Lopez got word to the NY Post, who at 7PM exclusively reported that Ford would not run (citing Lopez as the source.) At that point, Ford’s office agreed that the NY Times could publish the Op-Ed piece that had originally been planned for 9 PM. Minutes later, the NY Times Metro section published a story quoting from the Op-Ed, and by 8PM Ford’s original piece was up on the New York Times website.

Ford will appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe tomorrow to discuss his decision in greater depth.

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