CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Dec. 11, 2008 – 5:04 a.m.
Caroline Kennedy’s Interest Stirs New York Senate Vacancy Talk
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
There has been considerable buzz in recent days concerning Caroline Kennedy’s reported interest in New York Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat. But the emergence of the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy as a contender for the pending appointment has not scared off the state’s many U.S. House members who are eying the seat.
If anything, the development has prompted some in New York’s mostly Democratic congressional delegation to mount even more aggressive efforts to promote themselves, as Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson weighs his options to fill the pending vacancy. The seat will become open if second-term senator Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, is confirmed, as expected, as President-elect Barack Obama ’s pick to be secretary of State.
The appointee will serve at least until a special election is held in November 2010 to fill the remaining two years of the unexpired term Clinton won in her 2006 election.
Kennedy would bring star power should she make a midlife career switch. She also is the niece of the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and long-serving Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , whom she introduced at this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Denver during his first major public appearance following his surgery for brain cancer. But though she has long been active in public life, she has never before pursued political office.
Political handicappers have been in overdrive since Kennedy spoke with Paterson about the vacancy last Friday and expressed interest in obtaining the appointment. Associates of Kennedy, who is married to exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg, have been quoted in news stories saying that she is prepared to make the move because the youngest of her three children will reach the age of 16 this January.
Fanning the flames are members of the politically prolific Kennedy family, who are firmly in her corner, as well as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican turned independent who praised Kennedy earlier this week. Kennedy’s potential strength in the appointment derby was backed up in polls conducted by Public Policy Polling and [@Marist College Institute for Public Opinion@http://www.maristpoll.marist.edu/nyspolls/NY081209.htm@].
New York’s House members and their allies have had varying reactions to Kennedy’s interest in the race and the media uproar it has generated.
Democratic Rep. Eliot L. Engel , just elected to an 11th term in New York’s 17th District, is not considered a contender for the Senate seat and said he’d be happy if Kennedy is selected. “It would replace one female superstar with another, and I think in many ways it’s a safe pick for the governor,” Engel said, though he added, “But there are many other wonderful candidates out there.”
Another New York congressional Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was less glowing in assessing Kennedy. “She has no relevant experience or accomplishments. Yet she is a big name and can raise a lot of money to defend the seat,” the member said.
Surrogates for House Democrats who are interested in the Senate seat acknowledge those latter qualities give Kennedy considerable selling points, but hope the governor will consider the less glamorous aspects of the job that would suit the experiences of incumbent lawmakers.
Kennedy, said one Democratic aide, is “a very nice person. You look at her and it reminds you of a wonderful time in history.”
The question, the aide said: “Is she up for the work, the advocacy, the fight for federal funding?”
That point was echoed Wednesday by columnists in the Albany Times Union and Boston Globe newspapers.
“There is no indication from any upstate political voices that Caroline Kennedy has a grasp of the problems afflicting our 62 counties, or up to now, done much to find out,” wrote the Times Union’s Fred LeBrun.
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who just won a ninth term in the Manhattan-based 14th District in New York City, has cited her 26 years of legislative experience — she was on the city council for 11 years before her 1992 election to the House — as a major asset in her pursuit of the Senate appointment. Maloney told NY 1 radio on Dec. 5 that she is “very interested” in the seat, adding, “Of those that are on the list, I am rated as having a great deal of clout in my position by an independent rater. I’ve passed many important bills that help New York City and state.”
Women’s groups, including the National Organization of Women Political Action Committee and the Feminist Majority PAC, are also actively backing Maloney.
Other contenders for Clinton’s seat from among New York’s House incumbents are keeping a lower profile. Rep. Steve Israel , entering his fifth House term in Long Island’s 2nd District, told the Associated Press last month, “I love public service and if the governor were to ask me to continue in a different capacity, I’d welcome it.” He also confirmed in a separate radio interview that he had spoken with the governor about the seat, but his office staff is not making any further statements.
Two upstate members who have earned mention — Brian Higgins , entering his third term in the Buffalo-based 27th District and Kirsten Gillibrand , the November winner of a second term in the upper Hudson Valley’s 20th District, are remaining noncommittal, declining to comment on the process out of respect for the governor’s decision-making.
New York City Reps. Nydia M. Velazquez, who won a ninth term in the 12th District, and Jerrold Nadler of the 8th District, who first entered the House via a 1992 special election, also are regarded as possible candidates for the appointment, but their spokespeople are staying mum on the subject.
None of the aforementioned members, however, has publicly withdrawn their name from consideration, as 18th District Rep. Nita M. Lowey did last week.
Paterson, for his part, has pledged to wait until Clinton is confirmed in January before naming a replacement. In the meantime, he has said he will be evaluating the merits of various candidates. “The only thing the candidates should be thinking about is demonstrating that in lieu of an election that they would serve the state the best,” Paterson told PolitickerNY.com on Wednesday.
While Paterson will consider only members of his own Democratic Party for the pending appointment, there already is a House Republican — 3rd District Rep. Peter T. King — who is positioning himself for the special election that would occur in November 2010.
King, elected Nov. 4 to a ninth House term representing parts of Long Island, confirmed to CQ Politics that he is “seriously interested” in launching a Senate campaign. He plans to spend the next several months traveling around the state gauging support and evaluating his fundraising abilities.
He said he has the support of chairmen of the state’s Republican and Conservative party organizations, as well as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, even though the latter also has been rumored to be interested in the race.
“I think I could win,” King said. But he would have to overcome a strong Democratic current in a state in which Democrats hold virtually all major offices, and in which only three of the 29 U.S. House members in the upcoming 111th Congress, including King, are Republicans.
Michael Teitelbaum contributed to this story.
Comments
What do the people Ackerman compared have in common? Besides being women, and being beautiful? Does Jennifer Lopez have a law degree, as Ms Kennedy does? Does she hae powerful political connections? What, pray tell, are Akerman's outstanding qualifications for the office? Does every other senator even have a law degree? Is it a requirement even? Ackerman's comments are obviously sexist. Maybe he minself is a cross-dresser on Saturday nights in the privacy of his home, in front of his own mirror. That, at least is what his comments evince, andyway -- such irrational statements like this one that he made always point to deep-seated, concealed undercurrents in one's personality.
Caroline is qualifed for the position, though Robert Kennedy would have continued a tradition. Politicians need, according to RFK, compassion and commonsense- certainly Caroline meets her uncle's tenets.
Given that Caroline Kennedy was "inspired" to enter the political arena by Obama's message of change, it kind of frosts me that it was cool to reject the Bush / Clinton dynastic succession, and now that logic is dismissed to hand a New York Senate Seat to an unknown quantity named Kennedy with ready access to money. The more things change.....
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