Now that the 2016 presidential race has a few more people than Hillary Clinton looking to participate, the New York Times has to figure out what to do with reporter Amy Chozick.
Chozick is the paper’s “Hillary Clinton chronicler,” according to her Twitter bio. In mid 2013, she was moved from the Times’ media reporting desk to the political desk to cover Clinton full-time.
At the time, Carolyn Ryan, the Times’ political editor, said the purpose was to cover Clinton as “the closest thing we have to an incumbent” and that it allowed Chozick to develop sources ahead of 2016.
Since then, Chozick churned out a series of in-depth pieces on Clinton, perhaps most memorably a lengthy article about the turmoil and tension within the Clinton Foundation, the Clintons’ international nonprofit and fund-raising colossus.
But recently, several other potential candidates have emerged and made it clear they’re seriously considering jumping into the wide-open presidential election, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and neurosurgeon Ben Carson on the Republican side; and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on the Democratic side.
Shortly after Chozick was put on the Clinton beat, the Times also moved reporter Michael Barbaro from covering former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to follow New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another potential 2016 contender, but one who hasn’t taken as big a step toward declaring his candidacy as Bush and Carson have.
Moreover, the decision to have a full-time Christie reporter was equally colored by his then-role as the head of the Republican Governors Association and the impact he would have on the 2014 midterms, according to a Times memo.
For Clinton, it was all about her status as a candidate-in-waiting. (Times reporter Jeremy Peters has also covered Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as a potential White House candidate but not with the regularity that Chozick covers Clinton.)
The Times has not made public its plans for its political coverage, now that Clinton is no longer the only one seriously expected to enter the 2016 race. Chozick declined to comment on the record for this story. Ryan and a Times spokesperson did not return requests for comment.
Clinton consistently polls at the top of potential 2016 Democratic candidates. And, since Bush recently announced he is exploring a presidential run, he has also found himself at the top of the latest CNN poll of likely Republican candidates.
But in a preview of what is likely to be an unusually intense contest, a Rasmussen poll made public Monday found 53 percent of likely voters don’t want Bush to run and 56 percent oppose another run by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“Bush, a former Florida governor inching toward a bid, did badly in several key demographic groups. For example, the age group that rejected him the most was the youngest. Voters aged 18-39 do not want him to run, by a 57 percent to 17 percent margin,” according to the Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard.
