Livni warns: Kadima can’t exist without me

Incumbent Kadima leader begins new campaign aimed at scaring Kadima voters into voting for her in leadership race.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Tzippi Livni 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Tzippi Livni 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Incumbent Kadima leader Tzipi Livni began a new campaign on Monday aimed at scaring Kadima voters into voting for her in the March 27 leadership race, issuing a new slogan: “Without Tzipi Livni, there is no Kadima.”
Livni has said in the past that she looks forward to leaving politics.
She has not committed firmly to remaining in Kadima or in politics at all if she loses the race to MK Shaul Mofaz.
“It is a fact and not a threat to leave,” Livni’s spokesman said regarding the slogan. “Kadima without Tzipi is a second Likud.”
Sources close to Mofaz mocked the new slogan, saying it was the first time that a candidate marketed a 60 percent downfall in a party’s support as an achievement. The latest polls predict that Kadima would fall from its current 28 seats to 12 in the next general election.
“It’s a full hysteria campaign,” Mofaz strategist Lior Chorev said. “It’s pathetic and pitiful.”