Just one day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that House Republicans would take action to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is urging GOP leadership not to waste taxpayer resources to defend the unconstitutional law.

Gillibrand, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Congress should focus its attention on job creation.

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As she tries to shore up support for her election bid, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has reportedly received the backing of one of the country’s most powerful Democrats.

Former President Bill Clinton is supporting Gillibrand’s election, according to the Daily News.

The paper cites a Clinton aide, who says the former president thinks Gillibrand is doing a good job.

Gillibrand was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat after she was named secretary of state.

As secretary of state, Clinton cannot endorse a candidate.

Gillibrand has been fending off attacks from former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, who is considering whether to challenge her in a primary this fall.

Source: NY1

They were composed together at a Haiti vigil in Midtown Wednesday evening. But otherwise, it’s grown increasingly contentious between Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Harold Ford Junior, the former Tennessee Congressman who, so far, is only eyeing her seat.

Mostly, the rumbling is done by surrogates and allies. For Gillibrand, a Los Angeles film company that has made similar attacks on Senator John McCain recently released one aimed at Ford.

The two-minute video — not funded by Gillibrand, a spokesman says — takes swipes at Ford’s votes in congress, including a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and restrictions on late-term abortions.

Now a New York resident, Ford says he’s in favor of same-sex marriage and is playing up his support for abortion.

His spokesman dismissed the film as fictional, and out of “a high school film class.”

Ford is linking to his own clips, featuring praise by President Barack Obama, when he ran for the US Senate in Tennessee four years ago.

Those clips are meant to blunt Obama’s support in the race against Gillibrand who’s trying to make sure she coasts through the Democratic primary.

Source: NY1 Continue Reading This Article Here

New York Gov. David Paterson keeps sinking in the public’s opinion, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is stuck in the vortex: She has to avoid getting sucked down by the governor’s historic low ratings without appearing ungrateful to the man who picked her to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gillibrand, a little-known second-term congresswoman before Paterson named her in January to her powerful new job, is unique among New York Democrats because she can’t easily distance herself from Paterson, as have many Democrats in the state Legislature, Congress and even the White House.

National Democrats are eyeing the 2010 races nervously, hoping to avoid a repeat of 1994 when, under similar conditions, they lost the House and spent a dozen years in the minority. In the Senate, they have only the 60 votes needed to ward off a Republican filibuster – so a damaged Gillibrand worries the leadership.

Despite Republican vows to go after the freshman senator, no GOP candidate has emerged. Many in the party, including new state chairman Edward Cox, want to see former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani run against Gillibrand _ but he says he is considering a run for governor. A Sept. 22 Siena College poll shows Giuliani beating her 46-38 if the election were held now.

Gillibrand stopped short when asked Monday whether she would endorse Paterson if he ran in 2010.

“I support the governor, and he said he’s going to run, and we are all focused right now on this election cycle,” she said at an event at which she and fellow Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer were endorsing Bill Thompson in his bid for New York City mayor.

Schumer also wouldn’t endorse Paterson.

“As for elections, let’s stick with this one today,” he said.

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CSEA, the state’s largest public employees union, has endorsed Kirsten Gillibrand for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

“We are proud to make this announcement now and without any reservation because we know Sen. Gillibrand will continue to serve New Yorkers well,” said CSEA President Danny Donohue in a statement released Thursday.

The Public Employees Federation, another large state union, endorsed Gillibrand in June.

Holding Gillibrand’s seat is a concern for Democrats, especially with a possible primary challenge looming.

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New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she opposes a Senate measure that would give people the right to carry concealed weapons across state lines as long as they obey the concealed gun laws of the state they are visiting.

Gillibrand, a Democrat, says it is “wrong for the federal government to overrule a state’s ability to enact reasonable, constitutional gun laws.”

The measure by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., was offered to an amendment to a spending bill. Thune says it would reduce crime by providing reciprocity to carry concealed firearms.

Gillibrand as a House member earned a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association. Since her January appointment to the seat, her position on guns has been frequently highlighted.

Source: AP

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand raised nearly $1 million more than her likely Democratic primary challenger in the recent fundraising quarter.

The New York Democrat says she has raised more than $1.5 million and has more than $3.2 million in cash. New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s campaign says she has raised $577,000 and has about $1.7 million to spend.

The fundraising quarter ended June 30. Two days later, an adviser to Maloney said she would enter the race, but she has not formally announced. Maloney will get a fundraising boost on Monday, when former President Bill Clinton appears at a fundraiser for her.

No Republicans have entered the race.

Gillibrand was appointed to the seat after Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state.

Source: AP

To hear Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand’s critics tell the story, she went from darling to detractor of the gun lobby overnight, once Gov. David A. Paterson plucked her from a conservative U.S. House seat to be New York’s junior senator in January.

But as sharp as Mrs. Gillibrand’s turn has been — she won a 100 percent vote score from the National Rifle Association last year but now touts gun control and gives up any chance of an NRA endorsement again — her credentials on firearms issues are more nuanced than pro-gun or anti-gun advocates might have voters believe.

She defies clear definition as she prepares for a Democratic primary next year where guns are likely to be an issue, acknowledging some adjusted thinking but resisting the flip-flopper caricature.

The senator’s critics cite her perfect score last year from the NRA, which endorsed her for re-election to the House. But the NRA’s political action committee did not contribute money to her campaign; two years earlier it not only endorsed, but gave $5,500 to, her opponent, Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-Clifton Park. She has never been a member of the NRA, a spokeswoman said, although she has spoken of her own gun ownership and about learning hunting skills from her family, where her mother, she has said, is the best shot.

Source: Watertown Daily Times Continue Reading This Article Here

Efforts by the White House and Sen. Chuck Schumer to prevent a Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand next year appear to be failing.

Despite their success in getting Rep. Steve Israel to say he won’t challenge Gillibrand, four other Democrats are preparing to run.

Gillibrand, a 42-year-old attorney elected to the House twice in a Republican-leaning district that stretches from the Hudson Valley north to Lake Placid, was appointed to the Senate in January to fill the seat vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Some Democrats view her as vulnerable in a September 2010 primary because of conservative positions she espoused on guns and immigration as a House member, positions she has moderated as a senator.

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U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said Sunday evening she would support development of Native American casinos in Sullivan County, provided concerns are addressed, specifically traffic on Route 17.

Listen to the broadcast here

Source: Public Broadcasting