Caroline Kennedy interested in NY Senate seat
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/...dy_senate_seat

WASHINGTON – Caroline Kennedy has spoken to New York's governor about the Senate seat that will come open when Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, and Kennedy and the governor are expected to meet as early as Saturday to discuss it further, according to people familiar with the conversation.

Kennedy reached out to Gov. David Paterson, who will pick someone to fill the seat for two years, according to a Democratic source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversation was private.

Two New York Democrats told The Associated Press that Kennedy and the governor are expected to meet privately to discuss the matter Saturday, when Paterson travels to Washington, D.C., for a dinner.

Kennedy is interested in the Senate appointment, said a person close to the Kennedy family.

Kennedy is the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and a niece of brothers Edward and Robert. Robert Kennedy held the New York seat from 1965 until his assassination in 1968. Edward Kennedy has been a senator from Massachusetts since 1963.

As a prominent member of the Kennedy clan, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is the kind of high-profile, historic figure who could overshadow many other New York politicians hoping to be Paterson's choice.

The governor has said he is in no rush to make a decision, and Clinton is not giving up the seat before she is confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state.

"The governor has not yet reached out to any potential candidates," said Paterson's spokesman, Errol Cockfield. "He has been approached by several candidates. Any discussions related to that selection are private and the governor will not comment about speculation before a decision is made."

Word of the conversation comes days after Kennedy's cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced he was not interested in the job — a move that sidesteps any messy interfamily competition.

Whoever Paterson appoints would serve for two years and then have to run in a special election in 2010, along with Paterson and New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer. The candidate would then have to run again in 2012.

Kennedy has strong connections to incoming Obama administration officials — though Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter insisted they were not involved in any way with the search for the next U.S. senator from New York.

As a prominent booster of Barack Obama's presidential bid, Kennedy spent much of 2008 taking bigger steps onto the public stage.

As famous as she is, she always has been viewed as almost painfully shy. She does not like talking about herself, nor does she appreciate those who do.

She met her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, while working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They married in 1986 and have three children.

She made a splash in early 2008 by writing an op-ed column for The New York Times declaring her support for Obama, saying he had the potential to be as inspirational to Americans as her father was in the 1960s. She also spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

She then hit the campaign trail with Obama, and worked on the vice-presidential search that eventually settled on Joe Biden.

Caroline Kennedy is easily the most famous contender for Clinton's Senate seat, but there are plenty of others. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is widely known in the state. Paterson could also pick Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown or Tom Suozzi, a Long Island elected official.

There are also a number of House members in the running, including Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Kirsten Gillibrand, Steve Israel, Brian Higgins, Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler.

I have been very impressed by Caroline .She is very bright and a class act and astute about politics .She would make a fine replacement for Hillary in the Senate.

There are many people who would merit being appointed because of their brightness, classiness, and astuteness about politics, but who didn't win the birth lottery by being born with the Kennedy name. There aren't so many articles being written about those people.

She actually has the bona fides as far as qualifications go:

Kennedy is an attorney, editor, writer and member of the New York and Washington, D.C. bars. She is one of the founders of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents. In May 2002, she presented an unprecedented Profiles in Courage Award to representatives of the NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and the military as representatives of all of the people who acted to save the lives of others during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Kennedy is currently President of the Kennedy Library Foundation, a director of both the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. She is also an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to her father.

Kennedy has represented her family at the funeral services of former Presidents Ronald Reagan in 2004 and Gerald Ford in 2007, and at the funeral service of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in 2007. She also represented her family at the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas in November 2004.

So yes, she has the name but she also did something with it unlike our sitting president.

Ouch, that hurts! I don't think that the name should matter, but American voters are pretty distractible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/us...e.html?_r=2&hp

Caroline Kennedy to Seek Clinton’s Senate Seat

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: December 15, 2008
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of an American political dynasty, has decided to pursue the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a person told of her decision said on Monday.

The decision came after a series of deeply personal and political conversations, in which Ms. Kennedy, whom friends describe as unflashy but determined, wrestled with whether to give up what has been a lifetime of avoiding the spotlight.

Ms. Kennedy will ask Gov. David A. Paterson of New York to consider her for the appointment, according to the person told of her decision. The governor was traveling to Utica today and could not immediately be reached for comment.

If appointed, Ms. Kennedy would fill the seat once held by her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy.

Ms. Kennedy has been making calls this morning to alert political figures to her interest.

Ms. Kennedy’s decision is likely to have a major impact on the governor’s considerations as he mulls who should succeed Mrs. Clinton. Already, some other Democrats have pointedly questioned her credentials for the job. United States Representative Gary Ackerman, a Queens Democrat, said last week that he did not know what Ms. Kennedy’s qualifications were, “except that she has name recognition — but so does J. Lo.”

Others, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have praised her abilities.

Ms. Kennedy first telephoned the governor on Dec. 3 to inquire about the job, but Mr. Paterson described that conversation as “informational” and said it was clear that Ms. Kennedy had not decided whether she wanted to pursue the position.

But since then, she has begun reaching out to key political figures in New York, including Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, and Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller. She has also hired Knickerbocker SKD, a prominent political consulting firm headed by Josh Isay, a former chief of staff to Senator Charles E. Schumer, to advise her.

Ms. Kennedy’s family members, especially her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have urged her to seek the post.

Mrs. Clinton has said that she would not vacate the Senate seat until she was confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state, which is expected to occur in January or February, and the governor has said that he would wait until then to make the appointment. But he has also said that he might make his selection known before then, to allow whomever is chosen to prepare for the new role.

Ms. Kennedy, 51, a resident of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, took an unusually public role in Mr. Obama’s campaign, and the two became friends. Mr. Obama appointed Ms. Kennedy to the panel that vetted potential vice-presidential candidates for him.

Before that, Ms. Kennedy had devoted much of her time to charitable works and institutions linked to her family, like the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, of which she is president.

Others likely to be considered for the Senate seat are members of Congress including Kirsten Gillibrand, a rising star in the Democratic party who represents an upstate district; Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County chief executive and a former candidate for governor; and the New York State attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.

Can she bake a mean lasagna?