On the September 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity pledged to make the “maximum” contribution to the campaign of 2006 Republican Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro, who is running against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). Hannity also said he wanted his listeners to donate to Pirro's campaign, asked Pirro “how can people get in touch” with her to make a contribution, and promised to provide a link to her campaign website on his own Web page, Hannity.com. Pirro's campaign website features a photograph of her with Hannity above the caption “Fox News commentator and popular syndicated radio host Sean Hannity comes to support Jeanine Pirro at a local event held in her honor. February 2005.”
From the September 20 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
HANNITY: Now let me ask you a question, OK? How much am I allowed to give to your campaign? Because I want to give the maximum.
PIRRO: Awwww. Thank you, Sean. Well, you know, because there's a possible primary, it's $4,200 a person for the, you know, the whole cycle. And that's this year and next year. And certainly, you know, money is what we need to make sure that we can get our message out. I have been all over this state, Sean, and I am greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm, with energy, with people who say, “You know what? We need someone who's going to listen to us!” I'm an upstate New Yorker, you know? When I was a kid, I worked in a dairy. And I really feel for upstate New York. It's been ignored, and New York is not a doormat. It --
HANNITY: -- Well, so's Long Island.
PIRRO: You don't come to New York and use it as a springboard to the presidency.
HANNITY: Not only that. Just don't be a phony about it. If you're gonna run, say, “Yeah, I'm planning on running. I'm thinking of running.” But don't play this cat-and-mouse game and not get away with answering the question. Listen, I'm gonna have to run, but I want people to donate to your campaign. I read [New York Post state editor] Fredric Dicker's column, and you gotta, you know -- I'm gonna give you a check for the maximum that I can give, and I really want other people -- where is, how can people get in touch with you?
PIRRO: It's JeaninePirro.com. It's J-E-A-N-I-N-E -- Pirro -- P-I-R-R-O dot-com, and, Sean, thank you so much.
HANNITY: I'll link that to my website, Hannity.com, because I'm gonna tell you right now, it is such a bunch of -- I need people to get to know you. If they know you as well as I do, everybody'll vote for you.