Reports: Gillibrand Senate Announcement at Noon

While Governor Paterson won't say a word about who the next junior Senator from New York is until a press conference at noon, various aides—to him, to other well-placed Democrats—have leaked news that he will pick upstate Representative Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand's NRA membership (she comes from a family of hunters!) and opposition to limiting sales of semi-automatic weapons (and cop-killing bullets) has concerned more liberal Democrats. Still, the NY Times say she is "known for bold political moves and centrist policy positions" while the Post's Jacob Gershman is aghast at the process, "As the ashes of Caroline Kennedy's brief foray into politics are shoveled away, New Yorkers are left with a sad irony: Battling corruption charges and staring down certain impeachment, Gov. Rod Blagojevich did a better job of picking a US senator than did David Paterson.... Blago may be headed to prison, but in executing the same responsibility that rests on Paterson, the Illinois governor was confident, shrewd, and decisive - the very qualities absent from our governor."

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By Jen Chung in News on January 23, 2009 9:39 AM

Comments [rss]

BoerumHillJo

(she comes from a family of hunters!)

Nice.

fugothamist

horrible choice

i predict a new senator (giuliani) & governor (bloomberg) in 2010

good job david

peanuthead

so how is gillibrand's presence in the senate gonna affect bloomie's anti-gun efforts? that could be interesting and not in the best interest for nyc which really could use a dramatic reduction in gun proliferation! sure, she may have been in the house before, but that is only 1 vote out of 435 rather than 100.

CubanB

Oh dear God she's a member of the NRA, she must be the anti-christ! Blow it out your ass Gershman.

JMH

The fact that some idiot from the Post has never heard of her doesn't make her a bad choice. They're probably just pissed off that she's never been important enough for them to have any dirt or pre-written faux-clever headlines about her yet.

glennQNYC

Since when is coming from a family of hunters a negative?

Politburo

I don't think anyone said it was. Nice try, though.

glennQNYC

I was responding to Jen's choice of punctuation.

Internet Handle

Since Sarah Palin shot a human from a hang glider, or whatever it was.

mrguy

I had no idea that state's attorney rhonda pearlman from The Wire had become a politician in New York.

longacre

Does that mean Paterson is Gillebrand's Lt. Daniels? HOT.

TimSPC

Christine Quinn looks a lot more like Pearlman.

mrguy

we're going to have to agree to disagree on that point.

Toby von Meistersinger

I think Gershman in the Post is wrong. Blaggo's choice was a major contributor while Gillibrand appears to be an appease upstate choice while not taking the nepotism route.