New York Post (December 16, 2008)
Caroline Kennedy has decided she wants Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate seat, and she's enlisting some heavyweight backers in her bid for the job.
EDITORIAL: Kennedy For The Senate
Kennedy yesterday called Gov. Paterson, who has sole power to make the appointment, to express interest in replacing Clinton. And she is going after the seat with tacit backing from Mayor Bloomberg, and with one of his top operatives steering her effort, sources told The Post.
Kennedy signed up powerhouse consulting firm Knickerbocker SKD, which is run by consultant Josh Isay and has advised Bloomberg.
Several sources said the mayor, who recently praised Kennedy but didn't back her, is giving her his undeclared support.
One source said that it's unlikely he will come out publicly for her, but that he is boosting her as Clinton departs to become President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state.
Sources said the mayor spoke recently with Kennedy, who has been fairly apolitical and who has fiercely guarded her privacy.
"She told me she was interested in the position," Paterson told reporters.
"It's not a campaign. She'd like at some point to sit down."
Kennedy also has the backing of city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who has worked with her on fund-raising for local schools, sources said.
"I think it's hers," said one top New York Democrat, adding that with her combination of star power, ability to fund-raise and a direct line to Obama - whom she backed in the primaries - she seems like a shoo-in.
But people close to Paterson said her appointment is no certainty.
There are a "number of good candidates," a source close to the governor said.
New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, declined to say anything beyond that he had spoken with Kennedy "and she's clearly interested."
.
The move makes official what some family members had been urging Kennedy to do for weeks.
She decided to make a push for the job due, in part, to her kids being nearly grown up, sources said.
But shortly after word emerged she was interested, some Democrats, former Clinton boosters among them, questioned Kennedy's qualifications.
Kennedy's boosters are quick to point to her training as a lawyer.
But politico.com reported that Kennedy let her law registration with the state lapse, before re-upping within the past week.
"She is current with her registration fee," Kennedy's spokesman, Stefan Friedman said. "There was an oversight, and she rectified it."
Several sources close to Clinton insist the outgoing senator, who will not leave office before she's confirmed as secretary of state, is staying neutral.
"We need that voice in Washington," Kennedy's cousin Kerry Kennedy told NY1. "She does not need fame, she does not need money."
Kerry is the ex-wife of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo - who is considered another top candidate for the seat.
Kennedy spent the day making calls to political and business leaders, including Clinton, UFT head Randi Weingarten, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said he "unequivocally" disagrees "with those that say she is not qualified."
EDITORIAL: Kennedy For The Senate
Kennedy yesterday called Gov. Paterson, who has sole power to make the appointment, to express interest in replacing Clinton. And she is going after the seat with tacit backing from Mayor Bloomberg, and with one of his top operatives steering her effort, sources told The Post.
Kennedy signed up powerhouse consulting firm Knickerbocker SKD, which is run by consultant Josh Isay and has advised Bloomberg.
Several sources said the mayor, who recently praised Kennedy but didn't back her, is giving her his undeclared support.
One source said that it's unlikely he will come out publicly for her, but that he is boosting her as Clinton departs to become President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state.
Sources said the mayor spoke recently with Kennedy, who has been fairly apolitical and who has fiercely guarded her privacy.
"She told me she was interested in the position," Paterson told reporters.
"It's not a campaign. She'd like at some point to sit down."
Kennedy also has the backing of city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who has worked with her on fund-raising for local schools, sources said.
"I think it's hers," said one top New York Democrat, adding that with her combination of star power, ability to fund-raise and a direct line to Obama - whom she backed in the primaries - she seems like a shoo-in.
But people close to Paterson said her appointment is no certainty.
There are a "number of good candidates," a source close to the governor said.
New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, declined to say anything beyond that he had spoken with Kennedy "and she's clearly interested."
.
The move makes official what some family members had been urging Kennedy to do for weeks.
She decided to make a push for the job due, in part, to her kids being nearly grown up, sources said.
But shortly after word emerged she was interested, some Democrats, former Clinton boosters among them, questioned Kennedy's qualifications.
Kennedy's boosters are quick to point to her training as a lawyer.
But politico.com reported that Kennedy let her law registration with the state lapse, before re-upping within the past week.
"She is current with her registration fee," Kennedy's spokesman, Stefan Friedman said. "There was an oversight, and she rectified it."
Several sources close to Clinton insist the outgoing senator, who will not leave office before she's confirmed as secretary of state, is staying neutral.
"We need that voice in Washington," Kennedy's cousin Kerry Kennedy told NY1. "She does not need fame, she does not need money."
Kerry is the ex-wife of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo - who is considered another top candidate for the seat.
Kennedy spent the day making calls to political and business leaders, including Clinton, UFT head Randi Weingarten, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said he "unequivocally" disagrees "with those that say she is not qualified."
Even the NY Post is supporting this. It is unbelivable. There is no one other than this totally unquailied celebrity to name to the Senate. I know that Patterson is a boob. But I hope he is not that much of a boob.
1 comment:
On the plus side, she is one of the few Kennedy's who made it to adulthood without skiing into a tree, stopping a slug, raping a beach bunny, drowning, crashing a plane, sinking a boat, ODing or boozing to death.
And she don't need to rob the people like the rest of those assholes in the senate.
And she passed the New York Bar Exam.
That's three qualifications more than Hillary had, isn't it?
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