Gov. David Paterson has appointed Democratic U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York’s vacant Senate seat.
The appointment was announced Friday and requires no further confirmation. Gillibrand replaces Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was recently named U.S. secretary of state.
The announcement comes one day after Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, abruptly withdrew from consideration for the Senate seat.
The 42-year-old Gillibrand has been one of the top contenders in Paterson’s selection process, along with Kennedy and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The upstate congresswoman had served as Cuomo’s special counsel when he was housing secretary under President Clinton.
Paterson’s appointment lasts until 2010, when a special election will be held to fill the final two years of Clinton’s term.
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Gillibrand is a proven vote-getter in a largely rural eastern New York district that sprawls from the mid-Hudson Valley to north of Albany. She defeated a long-term Republican incumbent in 2006 and won re-election last year by a wide margin.
“She has potential Sarah Palin pizazz and energy from a different, more moderate and informed starting point, and without the negatives,” said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
“Gender plus geography equals Gillibrand,” said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. He said her upstate base would help Paterson’s 2010 ticket, which otherwise would be dominated by New York City residents like himself.
“On the minus side, she’s an unproven statewide vote-getter, a conservative ‘Blue Dog’ Democrat who could face a primary challenge in 2010 and face a tough general election,” Muzzio said. “Also, her congressional seat, the 20th, is a mostly Republican district that she first won in 2006 after a long Republican monopoly.”
Those weaknesses, the appearance of being a second choice after Kennedy, and the wrath of more senior Democrats who were overlooked in Albany, Washington and city halls statewide provide a good chance for a primary challenge in 2010.
Gillibrand, 42, becomes the only woman on a ticket that will include Paterson, Cuomo, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and senior U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.
Paterson has said the first task of a new U.S. senator should be bringing more aid in the federal stimulus package back to New York. It’s uncertain that Gillibrand has the background or pull to do that.
She voted last year against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.
This consideration, as the state faces a historic fiscal crisis, was considered a strength for Kennedy, who is close to President Barack Obama and may have been owed a favor for her early endorsement of him; and Cuomo, who has ties and experience in Washington as President Bill Clinton’s former housing secretary.
Gillibrand was an official in the Housing and Urban Development Department during the Clinton administration. She worked as a lawyer before challenging Republican John Sweeney in 2006 to represent New York’s 20th District. Her upset win came after a police report showing that Sweeney’s wife had called 911 in what appeared to be a domestic violence incident was leaked shortly before the election.
In November, Gillibrand defeated wealthy General Electric heir Sandy Treadwell. The former state Republican chairman was seen as one of the Republican Party’s best chances to capture a congressional seat in New York.
Gillibrand graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988 and earned a law degree at UCLA in 1991. She is the daughter of Albany lobbyist Douglas Rutnik.
Gillibrand’s House seat will remain open until the governor schedules a special election. The election must take place between 30 and 40 days of when he issues the proclamation, but the timing is up to Paterson.