A source close to a rival candidate for the Senate seat tells the Huffington Post that Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand has indeed been picked, as was first reported earlier this evening. The source said that the rival candidate had been told by Gov. Paterson's office that he had chosen Gillibrand.
Gov. Paterson appears poised today to pick an upstate congresswoman with close ties to Hillary Clinton as the next U.S. senator, the Daily News has learned.
After two months of speculation and chaos, sources said Paterson has settled on Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Hudson) to fill the seat of Clinton, President Obama's new secretary of state.
Politico noted some of the benefits that Gillibrand would provide Paterson and the strong opposition to the pick from New York Democrat Carolyn McCarthy:
Gillibrand brings several important political attributes critical to Patterson, who became governor when Eliot Spitzer resigned and has never topped a statewide ticket, when both run for their offices in 2010: She represents a relatively conservative part of upstate the governor hopes to woo, she's a formidable fundraiser with connections to Hillary Clinton's cash-generating apparatus and she's a woman in a state that prides itself of inclusiveness."She would not be my choice and I talked to the governor about it two weeks ago," McCarthy told Politico last night. "This morning I basically started getting calls saying he was going to choose her and I had to speak out, even at the risk of alienating the governor. I do not believe New York should have a senator who has these positions... I just came through the 15th anniversary of when my husband was killed and I my son was maimed from the shooting."
