New York State of Mind

The annual Philly to New York exodus following each graduating class is an all-too-familiar phenomenon to Penn grads. What can we say, we're one big class of carpetbaggers.

That's why we weren't that surprised when Penn graduate and former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr., C'92 announced his decision to run for one of the U.S. Senate seats in New York's Democratic primary after a four year hiatus from political office.

And the New York Times is loving the guy: since announcing his candidacy earlier this week, he's been featured in a lengthy profile, covered in numerous articles, and interviewed at length on topics ranging from the standard (stance on abortion) to the serious (Jets versus Giants).

But whether or not you agree with his policies or his recent (and controversial) New York residency, we can attest that Ford sounds pretty legit.

During his days at Penn, on top of receiving the Ivy Day Spoon award and launching the independent African American newspaper The Vision on campus, he also chilled with former basketball stud and current interim basketball coach Jerome Allen. And as if being selected as the keynote speaker of the 2000 Democratic Convention wasn't enough, Ford was chosen for an even greater honor the following year: People magazine named him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2001 (hint: hunk alert on page 116).