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Gillibrand Fights Back

by Lloyd Grove

Scott J. Ferrell / Getty Images

“I really am wonky,” Kirsten Gillibrand, New York’s appointed junior senator, tells me. We are meeting in her midtown Manhattan office, the same one formerly occupied by Hillary Clinton. “I’m a bit of a geek,” Gillibrand adds with a laugh.

At 43, she is a blond, piercingly blue-eyed mother of two in a navy pinstripe suit and dark blue hose, the corporate uniform of the efficient multitasker, accented by two muted strands of faux pearls around her neck. She wears blue-velvet flats, and is keen on setting me straight about published reports that she likes to go shoe-shopping. “No, that was not accurate,” she says. “I do like shoes because you do need to wear them.”

“You have not read my record!” Gillibrand exclaims, punctuating her eruption with a brisk swat to my kneecap.

The only visual extravagance is the bright yellow sofa on which we both sit, a holdover from the previous occupant. “Secretary Clinton likes yellow,” Gillbrand explains. “I like blue.”

The senator was a little-known two-term congresswoman from an historically Republican pastoral district in upstate New York when Gov. David Paterson famously bypassed Caroline Kennedy to pluck her out of obscurity in January 2009. A year later she’s gearing up for her first statewide campaign, the special election to fill the seat vacated by Clinton, who left to become President Obama’s Secretary of State.

So far Gillibrand, who is married to a British-born financial services consultant, has one declared opponent, perennial Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman. Former governor George Pataki has been exploring his options and former Democratic congressman Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee—who left Memphis and moved to Manhattan after losing his 2006 home-state race for Senate—has been making hostile noises.

“If he wants to move from Tennessee and come to New York and run for Senate, I welcome the challenge,” Gillibrand tells me with an edge to her voice. “I’m looking forward to running on my record. I’m looking forward to debating the issues. And I’m not going to take a back seat to anyone in fighting for New York.”

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