California Conservative

According to this NY Post article, Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn her name from consideration for Hillary’s Senate seat:

Caroline Kennedy last night withdrew from consideration to replace Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, just two months after she rocked the New York political landscape by throwing her hat in the ring, The Post has learned.

“I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Kennedy said in a statement released hours after the Post first broke the story.

It’s back to the drawing board for Gov. Paterson. He’ll now likely pick from a group of established legislators, though State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo remains a strong possibility:

Paterson has said he is not yet sure who New York’s new senator will be, but he plans to announce his decision by this weekend. The press conference at which he’ll name his pick is expected Saturday in Albany. On Tuesday, shortly after Obama was inaugurated, Paterson acknowledged for the first time he is considering Cuomo for the slot.

Early speculation was that JFK’s daughter would be the pick because of her name recognition and her fundraising ability. That disappeared when Ms. Kennedy did an interview in which she used the term you know frequently:

“I’m really coming into this as somebody who isn’t, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party,” Kennedy told the Daily News Saturday during a wide-ranging interview. “I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor.”

After that performance, people started questioning her ability. Reporters started asking whether she was being considered for Hillary’s seat because she’s a Kennedy. Fairly or not, first impressions matter. Still, most reporters and Democratic operatives thought she’d still be picked.

Thus far, people have been thinking about this strictly from Caroline Kennedy’s side of the equation. Apparently, Gov. Paterson had his doubts:

Several sources said the governor, who has sole power to replace Clinton, was unimpressed with the daughter of John F. Kennedy in media interviews and in private sessions with various officials.

Two sources said Paterson had conveyed to Kennedy on Tuesday that she wasn’t likely to get picked. Kennedy also was at Obama’s inauguration, but kept a low profile and was barely seen.

Gov. Paterson obviously considered his re-election chances with Ms. Kennedy on ticket in 2010 and determined that his chances were better with someone else running.

Technorati Tags: Hillary, David Paterson, Andrew Cuomo, Senate, Caroline Kennedy, Appointment, JFK, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Elections, Hillary, Interviews, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.