Chuck Schumer has a cold–but the senior senator still hacked his way through an endorsement of state Senator Eric Schneiderman for attorney general this afternoon.

Schumer called Schneiderman a “warrior for working class and middle class families, something I’ve stood for throughout my career.”

And Schneiderman–who was accused of running a very Manhattan-centric primary campaign–used Schumer’s endorsement to make his own pitch to upstate voters.

“People forget that before Chuck ran for statewide office there was a sense that people from downstate can’t compete in other parts of the state,” Schneiderman said. “This is a guy who came from Brookyn and won 61 out of 62 counties in the state…He identified this, he worked it, he paved the way for all of us.”

“I hope to continue the tradition that he started in New York state of uniting the state, of uniting every community in the state. As Attorney General I will fight crime and corruption wherever it occurs,” Schneiderman said.

The endorsement could get some notice even beyond upstate–as Schumer fielded questions from a few journalists with European accents about today’s travel alert.

As for Schumer’s own race, he dodged a direct invitation from a New York 1 reporter to debate his opponent, Jay Townsend.

“We are getting lots of different request and we’ll talk about that soon,” Schumer said.

Follow Reid Pillifant via RSS.