A political activist who recently returned home to Buffalo is orchestrating a movement to draft CNBC host Larry Kudlow to run against Sen. Charles E. Schumer this fall.

Michael Caputo, a one-time speech-writer for former Rep. Jack Kemp who has joined his family’s insurance business in Orchard Park, is coordinating the online movement at draftkudlow.com. The effort is beginning to gain some momentum, with Kudlow apparently doing nothing yet to stop it.

“The only thing I’ve said and I’ll continue to say is I’m honored to be considered,” Kudlow told the Daily Caller Web site. “I’m really flattered.”

Kudlow, who anchors CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” each weeknight, is a nationally syndicated columnist who is also a blogger. He is also head of Kudlow and Co., an economic research firm.

Caputo said he met Kudlow only one time in 1984 as a young Kemp staffer newly graduated from the University at Buffalo. He said he believes Kudlow remains one of the most prominent champions of Kemp’s supply-side economic theories.

“He’s one of the few people in politics today determined to carry Jack Kemp’s legacy forward,” he said.

Caputo has had a long career in working in Republican politics, managing electronic press galleries in Washington, working on former President George H. W. Bush’s campaign, and even on Boris Yeltsin’s election in Russia. Now he says this week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election signals that even a major Democratic figure like Schumer could be toppled.

“No one in New York State deserves to stay home more than Chuck Schumer, and I really believe Larry Kudlow is the one person who can send him home,” Caputo said.

The draft group is now aiming to collect 100,000 signatures online and through traditional advertising, which it hopes to present to Kudlow and help encourage him to consider the race.

“I suspect, when he sees what we do next, he will be more encouraged,” Caputo said.