GILLIBRAND PLEDGES TO RE-VISIT PAST IMMIGRATION POSITIONS

Kirsten Gillibrand was sworn in yesterday as the new Senator from New York and the complaints of pro-immigration groups and media outlets over her dismal voting record in the House of Representatives apparently has had an impact:

Immediately following the announcement, liberal blogs and New York’s ethnic media lit up with complaints about Ms. Gillibrand’s positions. A group of Hispanic state lawmakers have threatened to support a primary challenger to Ms. Gillibrand, who must stand for election next year. And El Diario La Prensa, the Spanish-language daily, described her as “a disappointing choice.”

“If Gov. David Paterson wanted to deliver a slap to immigrant New Yorkers, he effectively did so with his appointment yesterday of Representative Kirsten Gillibrand,” El Diario said in an editorial on Saturday.

*****

Ms. Gillibrand, who was sworn in as senator on Tuesday, has tried to allay some of the concerns, reaching out to Hispanic elected officials and pledging to reconsider some of her positions. Outside a reception in Washington following her swearing-in ceremony, she acknowledged that she had an obligation to revisit some of these questions as she now “represents the whole state.”

Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, received a phone call from Ms. Gillibrand over the weekend after he said that her immigration record “borders on xenophobia.” And when Mr. Rivera and some other Hispanic state lawmakers scheduled a press conference for Tuesday morning to announce plans to meet with “potential candidates to unseat her” in 2010, an aide to Ms. Gillibrand called the organizers and offered to have “a sit-down,” the assemblyman said.

Gillibrand's problem right now is that she needs to figure out how to move away from prior positions without seeming like a total flip-flopper (which is probably unavoidable). No easy task, but presumably Governor Paterson and Senator Gillibrand thought about this before the appointment was announced.

Comments

[Jack]

Rivera also charges she 'wants a guest worker program that basically serves as 21st Century slavery'. I'm still surprised you are so against her, Greg, considering you are such a proponent of 'temporary guest worker' programs. She's apparently right with you and the business special interests on that.

[George Chell]

Either way she is in trouble. If she changes her position she will be accused of flip flopping by the antis and many others. If she does not, she would have at the least a primary challenger. The jackass title here belongs to the governor of New York who along with the governor of Colorado seem to have his head buried in the sand..almost making sure that those Senate seats would go to GOP in 2010. Meanwhile, I am glad that Obama had some sense not to appoint another sitting Senator to the Commerce position. For a time people here in Hawaii were saying that one of the Senators (although old) might be considered as Obama had not done any "favor" to Hawaii. Had he appointed one of the Senators, Governor Lingle would have replaced the person with a Republican, slowly but surely eroding the Democratic advantage in the Senate. Gillibrand's appointment will cost the Dems a House seat and almost surely will cost them the Senate seat in 2010.