Kirsten Gillibrand

Senate-nominee Kirsten Gillibrand

Kirsten Gillibrand (born December 9, 1966) (pronounced JILL-uh-brand) is a first-term United States senator from New York. She had previously been in the United States House of Representatives. She was nominated on Jan. 23, 2009, by Governor David Paterson to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. At forty-two years old she is the youngest member of the Senate.

Career

Scion of an upstate New York family long involved in politics, she graduated from Dartmouth College (1988) and UCLA Law School. At Dartmouth learned Chinese, spent a semester in China, and wrote a senior project on a conservative topic, "The History of Tibetan Resistance to the Chinese Occupation of Tibet 1950-1988."

She is a Catholic, and is married with two children. Her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, is a British citizen who works in finance.

Gillibrand worked for both Republicans and Democrats, and clerked for a senior federal judge --a Reagan appointee--before working for a major law firm in New York City.

Election

Gillibrand was elected in 2006 after defeating incumbent Republican John E. Sweeney. She won by 6% of the vote after news of her opponent's long record of drunkenness was reported by three newspapers as well as a wife-beating incident when state police were called to his home, not to mention his ties with disreputable lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

House

Gillibrand is considered a Blue Dog Democrat for her conservative credentials, including a 100% rating from the NRA, supports offshore drilling, and voted against the $700 billion bailout. However, she supports civil liberties and has a 100% rating from the ACLU. She supported redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, and voted with the Bush administration and against her own party leadership on funding the Iraq war. She favors the English language-only movement as well as abortion rights; she has supported balanced budget amendments, and opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Gillibrand is considered one of the Democratic Party's most active and aggressive grass roots campaigners, using her huge $4.6 million war chest to garner 65% of the vote in the 2008 election.

U.S. Senate

Gillibrand was nominated to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton after she became Secretary of State in the Obama Administration. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late president, had been considered the frontrunner until she mysteriously dropped out of the contest on Jan. 22. The choice of Gillibrand was a stunning blow to liberal forces in New York, who never dreamed she would displace their favorites. "She is on the right-wing of our Congressional delegation," said Danny Cantor, a liberal leader. "People change, and we’re going to be optimistic and hope she does too."

See also

• Michael Powell and Raymond Hernandez, "Gillibrand Is a Centrist With a Tenacious Style," New York Times Jan. 24, 2009