Opinion: Caroline Kennedy said to seek Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat

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Associated Press reports today that Caroline Kennedy has expressed an interest to New York Gov. David Paterson in getting appointed to the next two years of the U.S. Senate seat soon to be vacated by secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton.

Paterson’s office says he’s been contacted by several potential nominees he will not name, and there’s no hurry since Clinton will not be resigning her seat until next month.

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Kennedy is President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Sen. Ted Kennedy’s niece, Jacqueline Kennedy’s daughter and niece of Robert Kennedy (who also held a New York Senate seat), the seemingly shyer one who enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama and helped make his vice presidential pick of Joe Biden.

When she endorsed Obama earlier this year, Kennedy said he reminded her of her father, the assassinated president.

Kennedy’s not been seen as a particularly political person but having yet another Kennedy enter public political life would seem likely to capture the nation’s imagination. And it would happen just as her aging....

...uncle, Ted, who’s suffering from a brain tumor, closes out his long career in the body where two of his deceased brothers -- John and Robert -- also served.

John Kennedy, in fact, was the last sitting senator until Obama to be elected president. His brother Robert was a senator when he was assassinated seeking to become president.

Whomever gets appointed to Clinton’s seat would need to run again in a special election in 2010, when Gov. Paterson must also contend, which makes him extra interested in who’ll be on the state ticket with him.

Earlier this week our colleague and Times political veteran Mark Z. Barabak wrote on The Ticket about what all Gov. Paterson would have to consider in his Senate replacement pick.

Here’s what Mark said then that still stands:

‘Paterson needs to replace Clinton with a woman. That yields a number of prospects, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is philosophically close to Clinton; Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, a former corporate attorney and rising star in state politics, and -- celebrity alert! -- Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president who delivered a timely primary endorsement of Obama and helped oversee his vice presidential selection process.

‘Paterson needs to pick someone from upstate New York, to gain support for an expected run for reelection in 2010. This boosts Gillibrand’s prospects and also throws others into the mix, including Rep. Brian Higgins and Buffalo’s popular black mayor, Byron Brown.

‘Paterson needs to pick a Latino, to assuage an important constituency and help his reelection prospects. Candidates include Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez and Adolfo Carrion Jr., the Bronx borough president.

‘Paterson can eliminate a potential headache and possible 2010 primary challenger by appointing the state’s ambitious attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, and seeing him off to Washington.’

-- Andrew Malcolm

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