Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to Replace Clinton as New York Senator

A congresswoman from upstate New York is set to take over as New York Senator from former Senator Hillary Clinton, according to an aide of Governor Patterson. The news comes a day after Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President Kennedy, withdrew her candidacy. It was learned from the aide that Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand will be officially named by Paterson today. An aide of Gillibrand said that the congresswoman has accepted the appointment. Guardian co.uk: ‘Having never held public office, she defeated an entrenched Republican incumbent in 2006, running an aggressive campaign and raising millions of dollars. She cruised to re-election last year. But Gillibrand, a centrist endorsed by National Rifle Association, is likely to prove a controversial choice among some party liberals’. ‘Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a Long Island Democrat, and ardent gun control activist whose husband was shot dead in 1993, said that if Gillibrand got the job, she was prepared to run against he in 2010’. ‘Gillibrand who is married with two children, served as lawyer for 15 years at some of the US leading legal firms. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, she worked as special counsel to the US Secretary of Housing and Urban development, Andrew Cuomo, who was also contesting the senate seat and was many people’s favorite, having overtaken Kennedy in polls’. Gillibrand is 42 years old and a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1998 and earned a law degree at UCLA in 1991. She is the daughter of Albany lobbyist Douglas Rutnik Prior to the announcement of the appointment of Gillibrand, Caroline Kennedy was expected to be named by Governor Paterson to replace Senator Clinton as New York Senator. But Kennedy beat the 24 hour deadline given by the Governor for her to accept the appointment by announcing that she is withdrawing from the race which caught everyone by surprise. The sudden appointment of Gillibrand by the Governor likewise caught everyone by surprise.