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Kirsten Gillibrand Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 26, 2014 11 Comments
Ballotpedia lists the following Democrats (in alphabetical order) as potential 2016 presidential candidates: Joe Biden Hillary Clinton Andrew Cuomo Kirsten Gillibrand Amy Klobuchar Martin O'Malley Bernie Sanders Brian Schweitzer Party Mark Warner Elizabeth Warren Jim Webb My goodness.  Not much diversity there.  Actually, none. Mostly old white people, not that there's anything wrong with that, but considering the years of demagoguery from Democrats, it certainly is ironic. Republicans, by contrast have a diverse field, including four likely contenders who are "diverse" but eschew presenting themselves as hyphenated Americans or playing racial politics. Politico reports, Race and the race:
Bobby Jindal is Indian-American, but you’ll never hear him describe himself that way. Marco Rubio insists he’s an “American of Hispanic descent.” And Ted Cruz “certainly” identifies as Hispanic, but he didn’t run for office as “the Hispanic guy.” These Republican lawmakers, along with African-American conservative favorite Ben Carson, look poised to make the 2016 GOP presidential field the party’s most diverse ever. They are all mulling over White House runs as the GOP continues to struggle with minority voters and as racial tensions over police conduct have captivated the nation.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 22, 2014 30 Comments
Oh, thaaaaaatttttt historically underrepresented group. Not the one you were thinking of. Via CNN:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNN she has been treated differently as a woman in the clubby upper chamber — echoing the general sentiments of her colleague Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who wrote about sexism in the Senate in a recent book. During a wide-ranging interview on the Colorado campaign trail—where she was stumping for endangered incumbent Sen. Mark Udall—CNN asked Warren whether she had experienced any different treatment as a woman. "Yes," she said. Would she elaborate? "Nope." But was it surprising? "Not really, I wish it were," she told CNN. "But it's hard to change these big, male dominated institutions. What I am very happy about is that there are now enough women in the United States Senate to bring change to that place and I think that's just powerfully important." There are now 20 women in the senate. Warren added: "You know, others have said it before me. If you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu." Warren's comments did make one clear case: women will be treated as equals when there continue to be more women in the Senate.

Posted by Prudence Paine on September 17, 2014 38 Comments
(Above, Kira Kazantsev, Miss America 2015, and former boss, Democratic activist Chuck Rocha of Solidarity Strategies.)
On Monday, Steve Ertelt of LifeNews.com reported an interesting fact he found on the LinkedIn page of the newly crowned Miss America. Kira Kazantsev LinkedIn1 Her most recent job experience (other than performing her duties as Miss New York and competing in the Miss America pageant) was three months as an "education" intern with Planned Parenthood. Her profile says that she presented programs in local schools regarding mutual respect and self-esteem. Is this how the country's leading abortion provider is insinuating itself into the lives of school children?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2014 12 Comments
Martha Robertson's fundraising cloud just won't go away in her challenge to Republican Tom Reed in NY-23. Robertson raised funds based on the claim that GOP operatives were caught trying to take down her website during a critical fundraising period. She never has come forward with any proof, and broke her promise to hire a forensic computing investigator to find the evidence. The local media is becoming increasingly frustrated with Robertson's dodging the issue, as we mentioned yesterday. Today Robertson was named to the prestigious "Red to Blue" list by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as reported in the Buffalo News:
Martha Robertson, the Democrat who's challenging Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, this fall, got a big boost Monday when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named her to its "Red to Blue" program -- signaling that she's one of the top Democratic House challengers in the country. The Democratic campaign committee selects challengers for the Red to Blue program when they've shown strong ability to raise funds, build a campaign and present a credible alternative to voters.
Martha Robertson Red To Blue Tweet 3-3-2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 27, 2014 30 Comments
Dinesh D'Souza allegedly violated campaign finance laws through a relatively small scheme to have friends donate $20,000 to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long, who had little chance of defeating Kirsten Gillibrand in 2012. The alleged illegality was that D'Souza would reimburse them, thereby allowing him to exceed the individual campaing donation limits. It he did it, it's hard to excuse. He must have known about the campaign limits. But such small-scale violations of campaign finance law often are treated as civil matters, with fines. When the Obama campaign turned off credit card security features that would prevent foreign donations, it didn't even get a slap on the wrist. When the Obama campaign was caught hiding over $1 million in excess donations, it merely was fined:
Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for violating federal disclosure laws, Politico reports. An FEC audit of Obama for America's 2008 records found the committee failed to disclose millions of dollars in contributions and dragged its feet in refunding millions more in excess contributions.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 02, 2013 19 Comments

The Senate passed a pork-laden Sandy Relief bill: Hurricane Sandy relief bill “pork” complaints is reportedly a sticking point fiscally conservative lawmakers. The $27 billion relief legislation crafted to offer Super Storm Sandy disaster aid will reportedly be stalled until after the Congressional session, which ends...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 03, 2012 5 Comments

It may seem counter-intuitive, but Upstate New York (the NY flyover country) is a key to holding the House, and will form a core of Operation Counterweight.  In 2010, Republicans picked up several seats upstate; redistricting has caused the loss of one upstate seat (and...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2012 22 Comments

Via Jazz Shaw, NY redistricting is finalized and Ithaca -- part of retiring Maurice Hinchey's district which disappeared -- now is part of the district of Republican Congressman Tom Reed (campaign website).  I don't know a lot about Tom, but I'll be finding out for sure,...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 13, 2012 3 Comments

Bob Turner won the race for the Congressional seat vacated by Anthony Weiner.  (Oh, what a night.) Redistricting in NY State looks to eliminate his district, something that was anticipated even before Turner's victory. So Turner is striking back, and has just announced plans to run against...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 02, 2011 6 Comments

The United States will be boycotting the "Durban III" conference:The US on Wednesday announced it will not attend the 10-year commemoration of a global UN conference on combating racism because past meetings have included “ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism.”The Obama administration made the announcement...

Posted by Kathleen McCaffrey on February 08, 2011 11 Comments

Amity Shlaes, my favorite living writer, is being recruited to run for the Senate in New York by Adam Brickley of The Dogcatcher Project. Brickley notes that "With Shlaes in the race, we can apply serious pressure on Gillibrand to explain her stunning about-face on...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 23, 2010 11 Comments

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) was right to insist on greater financial accountability and fraud prevention in the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (history of text changes here).The Zadroga Act had all the hallmarks of the type of government spending which, without vigilance, gave rise to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 14, 2010 8 Comments

I have some labels for them:Loser RINOs: Mike Castle, Charlie Christ, Bob InglisEgomaniacs: Michael BloombergAstroturfers:  Nancy Jacobson, Mark McKinnonTalking heads: David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, Mika BrzezinskiDemocrats: Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)Coffee Party The Group Which Cannot Be Mentioned By...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 21, 2010 5 Comments

Harry Reid's comment that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was the "hottest" in the Senate has generated reaction ranging from "there he goes again" to "sexist!"When I posted first thing this morning about it, I guess I fell into the "there he goes again" crowd (Someone Tell...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 21, 2010 5 Comments

Via The Politico, Reid calls Gillibrand the 'hottest' member at fundraiser:Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had an unusual form of praise for New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, this morning at the fundraiser Mayor Bloomberg hosted for him at his townhouse - referring to her...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2010 20 Comments

Kirsten Gillibrand should be toast in November, if only the Republicans could find someone with some decent name recognition and background to run against her. There simply is nothing remarkable about Gillibrand, and other than the support of Chuck Schumer, there is no reason Gillibrand...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2010 8 Comments

When the Obama administration announced in November its intention to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several other 9/11 plotters on trial in a civilian court in downtown Manhattan, the decision was met with derision on the right.There were two parts to that decision which were...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2009 1 Comment

Update 4-28-2009: Murphy declared the winner of the race by a couple hundred votes, as a result of doing better on absentee ballots than expected.----------------------------------------------------The Politico is characterizing the virtual tie between Jim Tedesco (R) and Scott Murphy (D) as a loss for Republicans....

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