Sunday, March 3, 2018

ALBANY – After Gov. David Paterson's surprise appointment of second-term U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat on Jan. 23, 2009, the New York Times helpfully phoneticized her name for its readers: "JILL-uh-brand."

In her remarks, Gillibrand, who had learned at 2 a.m. that morning that she had been selected over several more prominent contenders, acknowledged that she was unknown to much of the state. But she vowed to "bring upstate and downstate together, to work on behalf of all New Yorkers."

Never again would New York's Democratic establishment underestimate Gillibrand, a political novice and centrist from the Hudson Valley with a record of conservative congressional votes on gun control and immigration.

Now Gillibrand is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and she is as much an unknown to the nation as she was to her state a decade ago. Her long shot White House hopes surely rest on beating the odds, as she has before.

Second of two parts Kirsten Gillibrand is the Capital Region's first major-party presidential candidate in more than a century. This is a look at the Albany native's political journey through Congress. Read the first installment about her political roots here.

In 2006, she pulled off a major upset in her bid to unseat well-connected Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. John Sweeney in a GOP-dominated district, and she easily defeated her Republican challenger two years later.

That race "certainly raised people's estimation of her toughness," said David Catalfamo, a political strategist who worked for Republican challengers in three unsuccessful congressional campaigns against Gillibrand.

Leading up to those races, as a relative newcomer to New York politics, Gillibrand shrewdly disarmed her critics, including a skeptical media, and adapted her views to fit her statewide office, quickly becoming a powerful force in the Democratic party.

Party officials quickly took note of Gillibrand's remarkable fundraising prowess. Ahead of a potential primary against more seasoned politicians in 2010, she had nearly $300,000 in the bank, and the ability to drum up millions more. No Democrat challenged her, and she easily beat her Republican opponents in the general elections.

Before the #MeToo movement boosted national awareness of the issue, Gillibrand led the charge against sexual misconduct. She put a spotlight on sexual violence in the military and on college campuses and criticized members of her own party — former President Bill Clinton and now ex-U.S. Sen. Al Franken – for their behavior.

Last month, she kicked off a distinctly feminist 2020 presidential campaign at Country View Diner on Route 7 in Brunswick, where she and her husband own a residence.

In her prepared statement at the diner, Gillibrand touted the values she says have remained constant since she was first elected to Congress, including investment in education and "Medicare for All," promising to "fight for your children as hard as I fight for my own."

It was those core values, she says, that enabled her to twice triumph in a congressional district with a significant Republican enrollment edge, and as a senator representing one of the nation's most-liberal states.

Political observers say her evolution may be sincere, but Gillibrand will have to more sharply hone her message in a crowded field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

"Sen. Gillibrand has a good sense of the political moment most of the time. When she represented a conservative district, she was conservative. When she represented a liberal district, she was liberal," said Rebecca Katz, a progressive political strategist. "I believe she has evolved on the issues, which is a good thing, but she has given her critics reason to be skeptical."

Blue Dog Democrat

In the House, Gillibrand joined the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of mostly Southern, fiscally conservative Democrats.

She had campaigned against amnesty for undocumented immigrants, for fiscal restraint and for protecting gun rights, and her House votes reflected those views. She expressed support for making English the official language in the U.S. and was among four Democrats opposed to states offering driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

In 2008, Gillibrand co-sponsored a bill that would have repealed several of the District of Columbia's municipal gun laws, legalized semiautomatic assault weapons, and prohibited the D.C. Council from enacting future gun-related legislation.

She joined Republicans in opposing the bank bailout during the 2008 economic crisis – twice – but supported then-President Barack Obama's auto industry bailout.

When she broke from her Democratic colleagues, she was eager to explain herself.

Political consultant Morgan Hook, who was a news producer for Albany's CBS6 at the time, recalled interviewing Gillibrand about voting with Republicans against a Democratic bill that would fund U.S. efforts in Iraq.

"She didn't want to shy away from it. She wanted to talk about it," Hook said.

During her 2008 House race against Republican Alexander "Sandy" Treadwell, his campaign team unearthed details of her history at the prestigious law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, which they thought would be embarrassing: She had helped defend tobacco giant Phillip Morris. Gillibrand acknowledged that work, but pointed to her anti-tobacco record in Congress.

Some of the conversations that Paterson had leading up to his decision to appoint Gillibrand to Clinton's seat are revealed in his gubernatorial papers, since donated to Columbia University's library.

His preferred candidate for the seat was Caroline Kennedy, but she dropped out of the running as Paterson's deadline to make an appointment neared. The governor considered appointing a caretaker — possibly himself — to hold the seat until the next election. But he looked again at Gillibrand, who, while lesser known than other members of Congress on his short list, was popular upstate, which would boost the Bronx-based Paterson's own planned reelection prospects.

He later referred to a comment Gillibrand made during the interview process, in which she offered him advice on a "Saturday Night Live" skit that mocked his blindness. Her advice that he use the occasion to speak out on behalf of people with disabilities, Paterson said, cemented his decision.

"I was very touched at how she made me feel as a human being, and I thought, that was one area that I didn't know about her — I knew she was smart, I knew she spoke well, I knew she worked hard, I knew she could win because she got Republican votes," Paterson later told reporters.

She wrote in her 2014 autobiography that, during the interview, he told her, "You know, throughout this process, I have heard the nastiest things about you and you have reflected none of that. That makes me like you even more."

He denied choosing Gillibrand based on gender and geography, though his papers indicate that it was a factor.

Paterson, who relied on support from LGBTQ groups, instructed Gillibrand during his late-night phone call informing her of his decision to contact two prominent activists and assure them she would support same-sex marriage. Previously, she had expressed support only for civil unions. It was the first of several steps Gillibrand would take to modify her views to fit her new role.

The formal announcement was awkward. Gillibrand spoke for a long time, a habit her advisers say she has learned to curb. Her feverish toddler sat in a stroller out of the camera's view, according to her autobiography.

Notably in the frame was former U.S. Sen. Al D'Amato, who greeted Gillibrand warmly, a moment many in New York's political observers found curious. D'Amato, a Republican who is now a well-connected Albany lobbyist and fundraiser, was a foe of Clinton's and a friend of Gillibrand's father. Gillibrand had once interned in his office.

Evolution

Gillibrand immediately faced a hostile reception from fellow Democrats who were aligned with other contenders for Clinton's seat, or themselves were hoping to be chosen. She was panned by major New York media outlets for her out-of-step views on gun control and immigration.

Gillibrand's "A" rating from the National Rifle Association was an especially tough sell for her statewide constituency, and a casual comment to a Long Island reporter that she kept two rifles under her bed made the front page of Newsday.

"I also needed to get a better grip on handling the press. ... I was unguarded," she wrote of the moment in her 2014 memoir, "Off the Sidelines."

Editorials focused on her blonde, clean-cut appearance. The Village Voice called her a "Reese Witherspoon knockoff, legally blonde, all giggles and tee-hees." Politico quoted unnamed congressional colleagues calling her "Tracy Flick," the irritatingly ambitious class president candidate from the 1999 movie "Election." The New York Times' Maureen Dowd painted her as an "N.R.A. handmaiden in Bobby Kennedy's old seat."

Gillibrand was up for election for a full six-year term in 2010, but she was vulnerable. Long Island U.S. Rep. Caroline McCarthy, a longtime anti-gun activist, considered mounting a challenge, as did Rep. Steve Israel and Harold Ford, Jr., a former congressman.

But Gillibrand's low profile and ambitious nature suited New York's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, who had been resentful of sharing the limelight with Clinton, according to several political insiders who were familiar with that dynamic. Schumer, along with President Barack Obama, helped clear the Democratic field for Gillibrand's election, according to reports at the time.

Tellingly, at a 2009 fundraiser, as Gillibrand thanked her supporters, she had noted that she might face a Democratic challenge the following year. Schumer apparently interrupted his colleague, declaring, "There is not going to be a primary!" Gillibrand beat her 2010 Republican opponent with 71 percent of the vote.

Granted a chance prove herself, she engaged directly with her critics, sometimes shifting positions dramatically as a result.

She sought the advice of U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez about the plight of immigrants. Velazquez, a New York City Democrat who has not endorsed a candidate for 2020, said she found Gillibrand's evolution on the issue sincere.

"We had multiple conversations where she listened, learned and demonstrated genuine compassion for what families across New York have experienced from our broken immigration system," Velazquez wrote in an email.

Velazquez introduced her to Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who Gillibrand would later recommend for the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor became the first Latina Supreme Court justice in history.

Sonya Sotomayor

Gillibrand has become a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's immigration policies and was the first senator to publicly call for abolishing ICE, when the immigration enforcement agency began separating children from their parents at the U.S. border. In recent days, on the campaign trail, she has made headlines for suggesting that she might support a proposal for the U.S. to tear down existing border walls.

Gillibrand met with the family of Nyasia Pryear-Yard, a Brooklyn high school student who was killed by a stray bullet, and vowed to take on gun violence.

"My decision wasn't a calculated evolution, as some speculated," she wrote in the memoir. "It was my clear answer to the intensity of Nyasia's parents' pain and the collective misery of her community."

Having recently given birth that year to her second child, Gillibrand wrote, she fielded many stinging comments at the time about her weight and appearance from Senate colleagues and advisers.

"You try having two kids!" she exploded at one political operative who prodded her to consider how she might be portrayed on the cover of New York City tabloids.

Gillibrand has written frankly of her adolescent struggles with body image and dieting. As a young woman, she took up tennis, squash and softball. So after her pregnancies, she accepted style tips from Vogue Editor Anna Wintour and, after losing 40 pounds, was featured in a glamour spread in the fashion magazine.She shared her workout regimen with news outlets, using her personal struggle to connect to a broad female audience.

One element that connected Gillibrand to a conservative constituency hasn't changed: her focus on religious faith. She has said that teaching the Bible to 10-year-olds as a young lawyer in New York City grounded her, and she has been known to use her Catholic faith to connect with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail. Now representing a more diverse, statewide electorate, she used her knowledge of scripture to win over African-American church audiences. After one event, civil rights leader Al Sharpton christened her "Rev. Kirsten Gillibrand!"

As she settled into the job, Gillibrand was simultaneously earning the trust of her new Senate staff, many of them holdovers from Clinton's office. Far from a micro-manager, her style was to hire talented workers and let them do their jobs.

Jon Reinish, one of Gillibrand's first Senate hires, described her office culture as entrepreneurial and creative.

"She said: 'Go outside the Washington tried-and-true conversation. We need to win new allies and we need to get new eyes on the issue,'" Reinish recalled.

Her reputation in Washington as a good boss has helped her recruit an A-list team for her presidential campaign. Her top advisers include Meredith Kelly, former spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Dan McNally, former political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Record and criticism

In what political foes may ascribe to atonement for her early work for Philip Morris, Gillibrand has become a crusader for public health causes, including for veterans affected by Agent Orange, 9/11 first responders and victims of water pollution in Hoosick Falls.

A prolific fundraiser, Gillibrand until recently accepted hefty campaign donations from tobacco executives and Big Pharma, which has created its own public health crisis. She notes that she has consistently voted against those interests. But last year she announced that she would no longer accept corporate PAC money, following the lead of other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Gillibrand has more than $10.5 million in the bank remaining from the $20 million raised by her reelection campaigns since 2013, according to FEC fillings.

Gillibrand has long supported Medicare for all. She spoke of health care being "a right, not a privilege" in 2006, proposing that anyone be allowed to buy into Medicare. When Democrats negotiated the Affordable Care Act in 2009, she unsuccessfully pushed for it to include a public option and she had a hand in crafting Sen. Bernie Sanders' single-payer plan.

"Most people in our state really want basic coverage," she told the Times Union editorial board last year.

Paid family leave, which she says has broad bipartisan appeal, has long been a priority.

She played a role in repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military as well as the Defense of Marriage Act. She's drawn praise for tackling sexual assault in the military and on college campuses long before the #MeToo movement.

She has easily defeated three Republican challengers since being elected to the Senate. Still, statements made during debates in those races may haunt her presidential bid.

In October, Gillibrand promised in a debate with Republican Chele Farley to finish her full six-year Senate term. Editorial boards jumped on her when she announced her exploratory committee for president three months later. "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand flat-out lied," the Buffalo News declared.

But she seemed to already be setting the stage in 2012 for a presidential run with the launch of her Off the Sidelines PAC. The PAC has raised millions for insurgent female candidates. A number of them, now in office, owe her a favor.

Her willingness to call out fellow Democrats accused of sexual misconduct has made her into a feminist hero in some Democratic circles, a traitor in others.

Her call for Franken to resign when he was alleged to have groped multiple women upset some of her donors, and she drew ire from Clinton allies when she suggested that former President Bill Clinton should have resigned over his conduct toward former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In response to backlash from donors, Gillibrand doubled down, campaigning on the issue and insisting in social media ads that the complaints against Franken were credible.

"I don't regret speaking out. My values are not for sale and never will be," one ad reads.

In a phone call with donors on Feb. 28, she claimed that Franken, who has publicly denied some of the allegations, had not denied the charges to his colleagues in the Senate.

2020 Rollout

With her recent presidential bid, Gillibrand has continued to follow the trajectory of Hillary Clinton. But unlike her predecessor, famous for pantsuits and scoffing at the hobby of cookie-baking, Gillibrand is presenting a softer image, leading with her role as a nurturer in a distinctly feminist campaign, designed to play well with parents.

"For me it's just who I am. I see the world through this lens of what it's like to be a working mother," Gillibrand said in an interview.

In the public eye, she performed the juggling act of working while raising small children. In 2008, she famously spent 12 hours on the floor of the House before going into labor with her second son.

She looked for ways to incorporate her kids into her work life, penciling time for them into her busy schedule, former staff members say.

She has said that many of her policy positions arise from her perspective as a mother, from her push to ban chemicals in baby products to authoring bill language that would examine the effects of trace levels of drugs in drinking water on children.

In a crowded Democratic field of presidential contenders, featuring several women, Gillibrand may have to do more to distinguish herself from the pack. Gillibrand trails former Vice President Joe Biden as well as senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren in recent polls. But most voters have yet to form an opinion.

Even critics admit that Gillibrand is likable, persuasive and funny. That helps in a race playing out amid an emotionally fraught national debate on women's reproductive rights that pits liberal and conservative women against each other.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) poses for a portrait in Washington on Jan. 7, 2019. Just over 100 years ago, the first woman was sworn into Congress. Now a record 131 women are serving in the Legislature. (Celeste Sloman/The New York Times) less Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) poses for a portrait in Washington on Jan. 7, 2019. Just over 100 years ago, the first woman was sworn into Congress. Now a record 131 women are serving in the Legislature. ... more Photo: CELESTE SLOMAN Photo: CELESTE SLOMAN Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Gillibrand's political star rises 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

In 2012, when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen was widely criticized for a comment about Ann Romney's status as a stay-at-home mom, Gillibrand was delegated to debate Michelle Bachmann on "Meet the Press" and present a face of tolerance for women's choices.

Framing her campaign around parenthood is unifying, Gillibrand said. "Everyone loves kids, everyone loves their families. It doesn't matter if you are in a red part of the country or a blue part of the country, it's our common bond," she said.

Web presentation by Joyce Bassett / Times Union