Gov. David A. Paterson has selected Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, a 42-year-old congresswoman from upstate who is known for bold political moves and centrist policy positions, to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a person who spoke to the governor early Friday.
Taking a look at her House voting record, she seems better than the impression I’d formed from reports. But I hope this bears out and that she doesn’t turn out to be as much of a Blue Dog as some fear.
I’m very glad to see the seat go to a woman. I’d have loved it to be Carolyn Maloney, but I actually have high hopes for Gillibrand. We’ll see how it goes I guess!
I am not as excited as you are, but I am getting more excited.
Gillibrand seems fairly conservative — she was arguably the most conservative of all the women (or men) under consideration — so she is a big step down from Hillary Clinton. My hope is that her conservative record was just an attempt to vote in line with her upstate constituents, and that now that she is to represent all of New York, she will move to the left.
There are some encouraging signs that this is happening. Most notably, after voting in a somewhat mixed way on LGBT issues in the House (i.e. for ENDA, but against the repeal of DADT, etc.), she now has come out for gay marriage, which she had formerly opposed — up until the day she was appointed to the Senate! So that is certainly a sign of some rapid movement.
I should note that she has always been perfectly good on reproductive rights, and seems genuinely focused on domestic violence as an issue. In her house record, those were real bright spots amid the gray of being a huge NRA-endorsed anti-gun-control fanatic, a supporter of the Iraq troop “surge,” somewhat iffy on the Bush tax cuts for the rich (i.e. suggesting some support for them) and so on.
If she does move left, then I think the left should rally around her. Carolyn McCarthy has vowed a primary challenge, according to Roll Call
(http://www.rollcall.com/news/31687-1.html?type=printer_friendly)
but this might not be such a great thing.
Well, Maureen Dowd seems to hate Gillibrand, so that suggests good things about Gillibrand to me! See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25dowd.html?em
Should also disclose I guess that I grew up in upstate NY which affects my views as well.