Thursday, January 29, 2009
Kirsten Gillibrand, surprise US Senatorial choice
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The 2008 election year and its aftermath have focused on women in politics. We saw the rise and fall of Hillary Clinton, and her revival as probably the most powerful woman in the world, charged with the restoring of peace in the Middle East. Sarah Palin also briefly skyrocketed to fame, with an equally sudden downfall. In New York’s Senatorial contest, Caroline Kennedy was pushed to be the presumptive heiress to the Kennedy dynasty, but wisely resigned.
Our own Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, also sought the Senate post, and offered her years of of committee work and successful representation of the 14th CD in evidence . However, it appears that the coalition- minded Governor David Paterson, who had recently used his upstate connections to regain control of his runaway Senate Democrats, needed a senator to represent major upstate constituencies. He had another exceptional candidate, middle-of-the road Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who successfully overcame an 80,000 primary-voting Republican majority to win the Capitol District’s 17th CD in 2006 and 2008 for the Democrats, and, per Paul Begala, might well be our first woman President.
To begin with, let’s talk about her 100% NRA rating. She represents a huge district of 10 counties, over 200 miles in length, from fairly urban Dutchess through the agricultural Columbia, Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties, to Lake Placid. She lives in Greenport, in industry-poor Columbia County, where many farm people depend on the deer-hunting season for their protein. These are marginal agricultural communities of family farms, where at least one member must have a paid job, to provide steady cash income, and, if lucky, even health insurance. All members of the families often buy deer licenses, and fill the freezers with “deer meat” (the expensive venison on city restaurant menus is farm-bred). Here voting for gun control is viewed as politically suicidal as well as a disservice to the needs of the community. As to the supply of deer, these are sparsely populated counties, the Bambies overrun the corn fields, and regular and controlled harvesting of them is a social and economic necessity, insuring both the deer and the farms’ survival.
Born upstate, in a political family – her grandmother Dorothy “Polly” Noonan was a feminist, founder of Albany’s Democratic Women’s Club and friend and confidante to Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd (for 40-plus years, until 1983, the boss of Albany’s Democratic political machine); her mother Polly Noonan is a lawyer and politician. Her father Douglas Rutnick, a Democrat and a former public defendant, is an influential lobbyist, particularly with the Republican administration, who after his divorce was for 12 years the confidant of Zenia Mucha, known as “the Karl Rove of Sen. Alphonse D’Amato” and subsequently the spokesperson of Gov. George Pataki. At 39 Kirsten Gillibrand defeated four-term Republican Congressman and former Executive Director of NYS Republican Party, John E. Sweeney, and at 41 the former NYS Secretary of State, a GE millionaire heir, Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, having her 2nd son Henry born in May 2008, amidst the political rigors. In 2009 she will be the youngest US senator.
Born in Albany, she attended the Academy of Holy Names and the Emma Willard School in Troy, an all-girls’ high school in Troy. At Dartmouth, young Kirsten, then known as Tina, graduated magna cum laude in Asian studies (she learned to speak and write Chinese, and spent a semester in China), then took her law degree at UCLA, in 1991, interning with Senator D’Amato and clerking with Judge Roger Minor of the 2nd Circular Court of Appeals. Moving on to Davis Polk & Wardwell, as an associate during 1995-99 she documented the case of Philip Morris (now Altria) well enough to earn their employees’ $17K campaign contribution (in Congress she consistently voted for anti-tobacco legislation). After working as Special Counsel for Secretary of the HUD Andrew Cuomo during the late Clinton years, she became a partner in the Boies, Schiller & Flexner firm, a litigation powerhouse (US v. Microsoft, Bush v. Gore).
Her NRA rating has earned her the opposition of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband and son died in gun violence, but she has the approval of Sen. Schumer, another NRA opponent. Pres. Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Majority Leader Harry Reid support her appointment. As a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, she voted against the bank bailout but supported the GM/Chrysler package, and may have to compromise her principles in voting for the Obama economic stimulus package (she has already expressed approval of the NYS relief part).
The Senator is married to Jonathan Gillibrand, a venture capitalist who is British, and also has an older son, Theodore, age 5. She was on the Armed Services and Agriculture Committees, the latter particularly important for her constituency. I was impressed with her material, received from her office, when I inquired about her sponsoring wideband services for the Hudson Valley, important for small-scale technology and industrial development.
The 2008 election year and its aftermath have focused on women in politics. We saw the rise and fall of Hillary Clinton, and her revival as probably the most powerful woman in the world, charged with the restoring of peace in the Middle East. Sarah Palin also briefly skyrocketed to fame, with an equally sudden downfall. In New York’s Senatorial contest, Caroline Kennedy was pushed to be the presumptive heiress to the Kennedy dynasty, but wisely resigned.
Our own Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, also sought the Senate post, and offered her years of of committee work and successful representation of the 14th CD in evidence . However, it appears that the coalition- minded Governor David Paterson, who had recently used his upstate connections to regain control of his runaway Senate Democrats, needed a senator to represent major upstate constituencies. He had another exceptional candidate, middle-of-the road Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who successfully overcame an 80,000 primary-voting Republican majority to win the Capitol District’s 17th CD in 2006 and 2008 for the Democrats, and, per Paul Begala, might well be our first woman President.
To begin with, let’s talk about her 100% NRA rating. She represents a huge district of 10 counties, over 200 miles in length, from fairly urban Dutchess through the agricultural Columbia, Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties, to Lake Placid. She lives in Greenport, in industry-poor Columbia County, where many farm people depend on the deer-hunting season for their protein. These are marginal agricultural communities of family farms, where at least one member must have a paid job, to provide steady cash income, and, if lucky, even health insurance. All members of the families often buy deer licenses, and fill the freezers with “deer meat” (the expensive venison on city restaurant menus is farm-bred). Here voting for gun control is viewed as politically suicidal as well as a disservice to the needs of the community. As to the supply of deer, these are sparsely populated counties, the Bambies overrun the corn fields, and regular and controlled harvesting of them is a social and economic necessity, insuring both the deer and the farms’ survival.
Born upstate, in a political family – her grandmother Dorothy “Polly” Noonan was a feminist, founder of Albany’s Democratic Women’s Club and friend and confidante to Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd (for 40-plus years, until 1983, the boss of Albany’s Democratic political machine); her mother Polly Noonan is a lawyer and politician. Her father Douglas Rutnick, a Democrat and a former public defendant, is an influential lobbyist, particularly with the Republican administration, who after his divorce was for 12 years the confidant of Zenia Mucha, known as “the Karl Rove of Sen. Alphonse D’Amato” and subsequently the spokesperson of Gov. George Pataki. At 39 Kirsten Gillibrand defeated four-term Republican Congressman and former Executive Director of NYS Republican Party, John E. Sweeney, and at 41 the former NYS Secretary of State, a GE millionaire heir, Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, having her 2nd son Henry born in May 2008, amidst the political rigors. In 2009 she will be the youngest US senator.
Born in Albany, she attended the Academy of Holy Names and the Emma Willard School in Troy, an all-girls’ high school in Troy. At Dartmouth, young Kirsten, then known as Tina, graduated magna cum laude in Asian studies (she learned to speak and write Chinese, and spent a semester in China), then took her law degree at UCLA, in 1991, interning with Senator D’Amato and clerking with Judge Roger Minor of the 2nd Circular Court of Appeals. Moving on to Davis Polk & Wardwell, as an associate during 1995-99 she documented the case of Philip Morris (now Altria) well enough to earn their employees’ $17K campaign contribution (in Congress she consistently voted for anti-tobacco legislation). After working as Special Counsel for Secretary of the HUD Andrew Cuomo during the late Clinton years, she became a partner in the Boies, Schiller & Flexner firm, a litigation powerhouse (US v. Microsoft, Bush v. Gore).
Her NRA rating has earned her the opposition of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband and son died in gun violence, but she has the approval of Sen. Schumer, another NRA opponent. Pres. Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Majority Leader Harry Reid support her appointment. As a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, she voted against the bank bailout but supported the GM/Chrysler package, and may have to compromise her principles in voting for the Obama economic stimulus package (she has already expressed approval of the NYS relief part).
The Senator is married to Jonathan Gillibrand, a venture capitalist who is British, and also has an older son, Theodore, age 5. She was on the Armed Services and Agriculture Committees, the latter particularly important for her constituency. I was impressed with her material, received from her office, when I inquired about her sponsoring wideband services for the Hudson Valley, important for small-scale technology and industrial development.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 11:23 AM 
