Ford wants to spend more time with the family...

“I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened,” Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in The New York Times on Tuesday.

“I refuse to do anything,” he wrote, “that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans.”

There is of course, a simpler explanation--recent polls, including one commissioned by Ford himself, indicate pretty clearly that Gillibrand is extending her lead over Ford.

A brutal primary would in fact be inevitable, and for what? One would have to be rather delusional to consider the New York Senate seat 'safe' in this political environment. Quality candidates like Ford know enough to pick their shots--he's young (not even 40) and can afford to wait it out.