Is There a Kennedy in NY's Future?

It's official! Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg has officially announced her intent to seek the US Senate seat in New York being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The New York Times reports:

Ms. Kennedy ended weeks of silence with a series of rapid-fire phone calls to the state’s leading political figures, including Gov. David A. Paterson, in which she emphatically and enthusiastically declared herself interested in the seat, according to several people who received the calls.

“She told me she was interested in the position,” Mr. Paterson said at a news conference outside Albany on Monday. He added, “She’d like at some point to sit down and tell me what she thinks her qualifications are.”

I must confess that I have mixed emotions about this.

The first political contest to capture my attention was the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign. That administration carried with it a sense of hope similar to what many are feeling today. But is that reason enough to give the Senate seat to Caroline Kennedy?

I strongly think the vacancy must be filled by a woman. Women make up just 17% of Congress, so we can't afford to lose even one seat. And whoever is selected will have to defend the seat in 2010, which is not much time.

There are women in NY's Congressional delegation who have certainly paid their dues, but do they have the name recognition and fundraising capability necessary to hold the seat?

... Ms. Kennedy has emerged as a clear front-runner, if she proves able to withstand the intense scrutiny and criticism that her decision to seek the seat is likely to provoke.

Still, some have questioned whether Ms. Kennedy is qualified for the job.

Ms. Kennedy is now launching a public effort to demonstrate that she has both the ability and the stomach to perform the job, with plans to visit parts of the upstate region. The governor, who has expressed frustration with other elected officials for campaigning too openly, has done nothing to discourage her, said a person who has spoken with Ms. Kennedy.

In addition, a person with direct knowledge of the conversations said that Ms. Kennedy and Mr. Paterson had spoken several times in recent days and that the governor had grown increasingly fond of her. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the governor, said that Mr. Paterson also had come to see Ms. Kennedy as a strong potential candidate whose appointment would keep a woman in the seat and whose personal connections would allow her to raise the roughly $70 million required to hold on to the seat in the coming years.

Under state law, Ms. Kennedy would have to run and win in 2010, to finish out the last two years of Mrs. Clinton’s term, and again in 2012, to win a term of her own.

So what do you think? Should the Governor select Caroline Kennedy? Will supporters of Sen. Clinton be willing to overlook the role Kennedy played in Obama's victory? Inquiring minds want to know.

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