The American Spectator

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Senator Kirsten Gillibrand?

By W. James Antle, III on 1.23.09 @ 10:10AM

If the second-term congresswoman from Hudson Valley actually ends up taking Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, she is about as conservative a choice as could realistically be hoped for. She is to the right of her Democratic Party on guns, on middle-class tax cuts, on amnesty for illegal immigrants, and on fiscal policy. A Gillibrand selection would signify that New York Gov. David Patterson wants to diversify the Democratic ticket going into 2010, shore up upstate New York, and protect the new senator from any midterm backlash against President Obama.

The downside for Republicans, obviously, is that Gillibrand would conceivably be harder to beat in an election than Caroline Kennedy (though as a Blue Dog, she could be vulnerable to a primary challenge from her left). It's also possible that not having to represent a traditionally Republican district would free her to move to the left herself. On the other hand, it raises Republican chances of winning back her House seat.