MOMocrats Guest Post from Jackie Augustine: New York's Newest Senator? MOMocrat Kirsten Gillibrand

The MOMocrats welcome Upstate New Yorker Jackie Augustine who introduces us to her new senator.

In a noontime announcement today, Governor David Paterson named Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand as the successor to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat following Clinton’s confirmation as Secretary of State in the Obama cabinet.

Gillibrand, 42, is currently serving her second term in Congress representing NY’s 20th District, a largely agricultural district that extends from the Hudson Valley north through the Adirondack Mountains and includes such well-known areas as Saratoga Springs and Lake Placid (home to the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics). Gillibrand and her family live just outside of the City of Hudson--south of Albany but far enough north of New York City to be considered ‘Upstate’. Speaking of her family, her husband Jonathan and their four year old son just welcomed a sibling, little Henry Gillibrand in May 2008, delivered the day after Gillibrand helped to pass an amendment in the Armed Services committee that she serves on.

This “Congress Mom” (as the group of Congresswomen with young children often call themselves) handily won reelection to her mostly-Republican district in November, showing that she has earned a reputation as a ‘Blue Dog’ Democrat, supporting tax cuts, universal health care, and gun rights while also opposing the ‘bailout’ bills and the privatization of Medicare and Social Security.

Gillibrand attended Darmouth College and UCLA Law School and served as Special Counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Clinton administration. The Secretary she served at HUD? None other than Andrew Cuomo, another person on Governor Paterson’s ‘short list’ for consideration as New York’s junior Senator.

In choosing Gillibrand, Paterson did not make a predictable pick in terms of his own political interest or length of service in elected office. He did, however, choose a clear ‘Upstater’ who not only brings a unique perspective to Washington, but represents a fresh voice in the New York political scene which has been, until this time, largely dominated by downstate men.

---Jackie Augustine

Augustine, 31, is a MOMocrat living with her husband and their three children in Geneva, NY-- also in ‘Upstate’ but farther west, in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country. Augustine has served on the City Council since first being elected in 1999 at the age of 22. She is coauthor of the blog NoStringsGeneva.com

Have something to say? MOMocrats welcomes guest posters.  Let us know by dropping us an email at momocrats [at] gmail [dot] com.

Comments

[tinymarie]

David Paterson's pick is much better than our new President's !

President Obama has chosen a man for Treasury Secretary who didn't pay his taxes for three years! This is wacked! If I don't pay my taxes, I'll end up in jail. How can a tax cheat help this Country at such a delicate time?

[Fed]

Actually, if you didn't pay your taxes for three years, you'd get fined, and you'd have to pay the back taxes.

Few people go to prison over tax evasion unless it is willful, malicious, and egregious.

Sign me,

A Fed

[TINYMARIE]

Maybe I wouldn't go to jail if I didn't pay my taxes ( I pay mine faithfully, so I'll never know). But, he is either stupid ( didn't know he owed taxes ) , or a cheat. I don't want the dude in charge of the Treasury to be either. It's time to CHANGE the way things are done, even if it makes one a little red in the face.

[Fed]

No argument, Tiny... I was just saying.

[Fed]

No argument, Tiny... I was just saying.

[Fed]

No argument, Tiny... I was just saying.

[Momocrats]

Tiny Marie,

Please keep your comments to the topic of the post. We'd hate to have to moderate you. Tim Geithner is not the topic here. Your comment is irrelevant, and as A Fed points out, factually erroneous.

The MOMocrats