Kirsten Gillibrand

Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand (born December 9, 1966) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from New York. She is a member of the Democratic Party and former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district. In December 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State, leaving an empty seat in the New York senate delegation. After two months and many potential names considered, Governor David Paterson appointed Gillibrand to fill the seat. Gillibrand was required to run in a special election in 2010, which she won with 63% of the vote. She was re-elected to a full six-year term in 2012 with 72% of the vote, the highest margin for any statewide candidate in New York.

Originally known in the House for moderate and center-left policy positions, since her appointment to the Senate she has been seen more as a progressive. In both cases, her views were significantly defined by the respective constituency she served at the time — a conservative congressional district versus the generally liberal state of New York. Gillibrand is perhaps best known for successfully championing both the repeal of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the adoption of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

Early life and education
Gillibrand was born in Albany, New York, on December 9, 1966, the daughter of Polly Noonan and Douglas Rutnik. The couple—both attorneys—practiced law at their own firm until divorcing in the late 1980s. Gillibrand's father also spent time as a lobbyist and was known for his close ties to Republican Party, although he himself is a registered Democrat. Gillibrand has an older brother, Doug Rutnik, and a younger sister, Erin Rutnik Tschantret. Her maternal grandmother was Dorothea "Polly" Noonan, founder of the Albany Democratic Women's Club, as well as a leader in Albany Mayor Erastus Corning's powerful political machine, which lasted for more than 40 years. Her ancestry includes Austrian, German, and Irish.

For much of her early life, Gillibrand was known by the nickname Tina, a name adopted by her brother when he was not able to pronounce "Kirsten" as a child. In 1984 she graduated from Emma Willard School in Troy, New York and went on to Dartmouth College. As an Asian Studies major, she became functionally fluent in Mandarin Chinese; she studied in both Beijing and Taiwan and adopted a Chinese name, Lu Tian Na (陸天娜). She states that she considers herself conversationally fluent. Gillibrand graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1988. While at Dartmouth, she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. During college, she interned at US Senator Alfonse D'Amato's Albany office. Following Dartmouth, Gillibrand attended UCLA Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991; she passed the bar that same year.

Law career
In 1991, Gillibrand joined the Manhattan-based law office of Davis Polk & Wardwell as an associate. In 1992, she took a leave from Davis Polk to serve as a law clerk to Judge Roger Miner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany. It was at this time she dropped the childhood nickname Tina; Judge Miner refused to call her by a nickname, and "Kirsten" stuck.

Gillibrand's tenure at Davis Polk is best known for her work as a defense attorney for Tobacco company Philip Morris during major litigation, including both civil lawsuits and U.S. Justice Department criminal and civil racketeering probes. She became a senior associate while working on the Philip Morris case. While this time in her career has proven controversial, Gillibrand indicates her work for Philip Morris allowed her to take on multiple pro bono cases defending abused women and their children, as well as other cases defending tenants seeking safe housing after lead paint and unsafe conditions were found in their homes.

While working for Davis Polk, Gillibrand became involved in—and later the leader of—the Women's Leadership Forum, a program of the Democratic National Committee. Gillibrand states that a speech to the group by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton left an impressionable mark on her: "[Clinton] was trying to encourage us to become more active in politics and she said, 'If you leave all the decision-making to others, you might not like what they do, and you will have no one but yourself to blame.' It was such a challenge to the women in the room. And it really hit me: She's talking to me."

Following her time at Davis Polk, Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo during the last year of the Clinton administration. Gillibrand worked on HUD's Labor Initiative and its New Markets Initiative as well as on TAP's Young Leaders of the American Democracy, on strengthening Davis–Bacon Act enforcement.

In 1999, Gillibrand began working on Hillary Clinton's 2000 US Senate campaign; there, she focused on campaigning to young women and encouraging them to join the effort. Many of those women would end up working on Gillibrand's future campaigns. Gillibrand and Clinton became close during the election, with Clinton becoming something of a mentor to the young attorney. Gillibrand's fondness for Clinton has seen her donate more than $12,000 to Clinton's senate campaigns.

In 2001, Gillibrand became a partner at the Manhattan office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, where one of her clients was the Altria Group, Philip Morris' parent company. In 2002 she informed Boies of interest in running for office and was allowed to transfer to the firm's Albany office. She left Boies in 2005 to begin her 2006 campaign for Congress.

Elections
Gillibrand's first run for office was in the 2006 race in New York's 20th congressional district against four-term Republican incumbent John E. Sweeney. Traditionally conservative, the district and its predecessors had been in Republican hands for all but four years since 1913. Congressman Sweeney was even quoted as saying "no Republican can ever lose [the district]" at the time. In November 2006, the Republican Party held an enrollment advantage over Democrats of 82,737 voters: 197,473 to 114,736. Engaging New York's electoral fusion election laws, Gillibrand ran on both the Democratic and Working Families lines; in addition to having the Republican nomination, Sweeney was endorsed by the Conservative and Independence parties.

During the campaign, Gillibrand was a popular candidate with Democrats. Mike McNulty, Democratic Congressman from the neighboring 21st congressional district, campaigned for her, as did both Hillary and Bill Clinton; the former president appeared twice at campaign events. Both parties poured millions of dollars into the respective campaigns. Gillibrand was seen as a moderate by many conservatives. The American Conservative described her eventual win by saying, "Gillibrand won her upstate New York district by running to the right: she campaigned against amnesty for illegal immigrants, promised to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, and pledged to protect gun rights."

The probable turning point of the election was the November 1 release of a December 2005 police report detailing a 9-1-1 call made by Sweeney's wife, in which she claimed Sweeney was "knocking her around the house". The Sweeney campaign claimed it was a lie and promised to have the official report released by State Police, but never came through on that promise. The Sweeney campaign responded by releasing an ad during which Sweeney's wife described Gillibrand's campaign as "a disgrace".

By November 5, a Siena College Research Poll showed Gillibrand ahead of Sweeney 46% to 43%. Gillibrand ended up winning with 53% of the vote. Following her win, Republicans quickly began speculating about who would run against her in 2008. Len Cutler, director of the Center for the Study of Government and Politics at Siena College, indicated that the seat would be difficult for Gillibrand to hold in 2008, noting the substantial Republican enrollment advantage. Much of her success was attributed to her skill at fundraising.

Gillibrand won her bid for re-election in 2008, with her challenger being former New York Secretary of State Sandy Treadwell. Despite significantly outspending Gillibrand, and promising to never vote to raise taxes, not accept a federal salary, and limit himself to three terms in office, Treadwell lost the election by a 24-point margin, a four-fold increase in the differential from the 2006 election. Gillibrand scored 62% of the vote with Treadwell getting 38%. Democrats generally saw major successes during the 2008 congressional election, credited in part to a coattail effect from Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Tenure
Upon the start of her tenure, Gillibrand became the first member of Congress to publish her official schedule, listing everyone she met with on a given day, as well as earmark requests and her personal financial statement. This "Sunlight Report", as her office termed it, was praised by a New York Times editorial in December 2006 as being a "quiet touch of revolution" in a non-transparent system. She joined the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats. She was noted for voting against 2007's Immigration Reform Act and George W. Bush's Wall Street bailout.

During her first year, Gillibrand opened the earmarking process up to the New York Times. New rules requiring Representatives to tag their names to requests was seen as an increase in transparency, as was the invitation from the Congresswoman. Gillibrand stated she wanted what was best for her district "by requiring every project to pass a 'greatest-need, greatest-good' test". Gillibrand was noted as being an aggressive legislator and someone who sometimes stirs up minor controversy within the House; members of the New York congressional delegation were known to refer to her as Tracy Flick.

Committee assignments
While in the House of Representatives, Gillibrand served on the following committees:
 * Committee on Agriculture
 * Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research
 * Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
 * Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
 * Committee on Armed Services
 * Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces
 * Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats

U.S. Senate
On December 1, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced his choice of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the junior U.S. Senator from New York, as Secretary of State. This began a two-month search process to fill her vacant Senate seat. Upon a Senate vacancy, under New York law, the Governor appoints a replacement. There would be subsequent special election in 2010, for the conclusion of the full term, ending in January 2013.

Governor Paterson's selection process began with a number of prominent names and high-ranking New York Democrats vying for the spot. Gillibrand quietly campaigned to Paterson for the position, meeting secretly with him on at least one occasion; she says she made an effort to underscore her successful House elections in a largely conservative district, adding that she could be a good complement to Chuck Schumer. Gillibrand was presumed a likely choice the days before the official announcement; Paterson held a press conference at noon on January 23 announcing Gillibrand as his choice.

The response within New York to the governor's appointment was mixed. The upstate media was generally optimistic about an upstate Senator, which they had not seen since Charles Goodell left office in 1971; while downstaters focused on disappointment with a non-Kennedy selection, with some media outlets stating that the selection ignored the electoral influence New York City and downstate have on state politics (due to the area's population). One explicitly asked whether Paterson's administration was aware of "[where] statewide elections are won and lost". The relative unfamiliarity with Gillibrand statewide was undeniable, with many voters finding the choice surprising. One source states, "With every Democrat in New York...angling for the appointment, there was a sense of bafflement, belittlement, and bruised egos when Paterson tapped the junior legislator unknown outside of Albany."

Gillibrand was sworn in on January 26, 2009; at 42, she entered the chamber as the youngest senator in the 111th Congress.

Elections

 * 2010

Gillibrand as a candidate in the September 14, 2010 Democratic primary election had numerous potential challengers. Some became visible at the time of her appointment, most notably, Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who was unhappy with Gillibrand's stance on gun control. McCarthy ultimately decided not to run. By March 2009, Harold Ford, Jr., former Congressman from Tennessee, considered a run but ultimately decided against it after pressure from Chuck Schumer and other high-ranking Democrats. Congressman Steve Israel was also a contender but was talked out of it by President Obama. Concerned about a possible schism in the party that could lead to a heated primary, split electorate, and weakened stance, high-ranking members of the party backed Gillibrand and requested major opponents to decline to run. In the end, Gillibrand faced Gail Goode, a lawyer from New York City, and won the primary with 76% of the vote.

In what was initially expected to be a heated race, Gillibrand easily prevailed against former Republican congressman Joseph DioGuardi. This was Gillibrand's first state-wide election. By the end of October, a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll placed Gillibrand over DioGuardi 57-34%. Gillibrand won the November election 63–35%, carrying 54 of New York's 62 counties. The counties that supported DioGuardi did so by a margin no greater than 10%.


 * 2012

Gillibrand's special election victory gave her the right to serve the rest of Clinton's second term, which ends in January 2013. Gillibrand ran for a full six-year term in November 2012. In the general election, Gillibrand faced challenger Wendy E. Long, an attorney running on both the Republican Party and Conservative Party lines. Gillibrand was endorsed by The New York Times and the Democrat and Chronicle. Gillibrand won the seat with 72% of the vote-- the largest victory margin for a statewide candidate in New York history, only a few percentage points ahead of Schumer's 71 percent victory in 2004. She carried all but two mostly rural counties in western New York. She is the first upstate resident to be elected to a full term in the Senate since Kenneth Keating of Rochester, who held her current seat from 1959 to 1965.

Tenure
On April 9, 2009, a combined Schumer–Gillibrand press release stated strong support of a Latino being nominated to the Supreme Court at the time of the next vacancy. Their first choice was Sonia Sotomayor, whom the two introduced at the Senate confirmation hearing in July.

During the lame duck session of the 111th Congress, Gillibrand scored two substantial legislative victories: the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Both were issues she had advocated for during that session. In the aftermath of these victories, many commentators opined that these victories marked her emergence on the national stage.

In 2011, Gillibrand visited her friend Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who had been shot in the head during the shooting in Tucson, and Giffords opened her eyes for the first time and squeezed Gillibrand's hand.

Awards
The National Journal declared Gillibrand to be the tenth most liberal member of the Senate in 2010, tying with Chuck Schumer. Gillibrand was tied for one of the two most liberal Senators, according to the National Journal for 2011 tying with Jeff Merkley.

Gillibrand has received a grade of an “A” from the National Education Association and the National Education Association. She voted to reauthorize and expand the Head Start program. She does not support vouchers aiding parents in financing their children’s education at private schools, but advocates for better funding for public schools. She has supported and authored various legislation to increase funding for education, including the Keep our Educators Working Act, which died in committee. Gillibrand voted to reform and fully fund the No Child Left Behind act.

Gillibrand wrote the Undergraduate Scholarships Awards in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Act (US STEM) Act, which would award 2500 grants of full tuition to undergraduate students through the National Science Foundation in their last two years school; the bill is presently in committee. She co-sponsored the Pathways to College Act providing grants to local education agencies which service low-income schools. She sponsored the College Affordability Tax Relief Act which would have permitted families to deduct up to $10,000 of college tuition from federal taxes; the bill died in committee. Gillibrand also worked to increase the number of Pell Grant scholarships by providing $36 billion nationally in the next 10 years to the program.

Controversy
In early 2012, Gillibrand was a co-sponsor of the controversial PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Meant to curb online piracy and illegal downloading of copyrighted material, the bill was seen by many free-speech advocates as potentially giving the U.S. Government too much power to censor the Internet. Large protests against the bill—including many prominent websites shutting down—led PIPA and its sister bill in the House, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), to be stalled. While Gillibrand insisted that the problems were too great to ignore, in the face of great public outcry against PIPA she then indicated that PIPA may not have been the best course of action to fight piracy as it was originally written.

In June 2012, Gillibrand urged a ban on all neodymium magnet toys in an alarmist letter to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum, citing 19 incidents of children who accidentally ingested (but not necessarily suffered harm from) the magnets in 2012 (for comparison, swimming pool-related injuries and deaths reach several thousands a year). Subsequently, one magnet toy manufacturer was sued out of existence, while another was sued without having had any record of magnet-related injury.

Committee assignments
While in the Senate, Gillibrand served on the following committees:


 * Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
 * Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant and Animal Health (Chair)
 * Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology
 * Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms
 * Committee on Armed Services (112th Congress)
 * Subcommittee on Airland
 * Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
 * Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
 * Committee on Environment and Public Works
 * Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy
 * Subcommittee on Oversight
 * Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health
 * Committee on Foreign Relations (111th Congress)
 * Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs
 * Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection
 * Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues
 * Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Narcotics Affairs
 * Special Committee on Aging


 * Caucus memberships
 * Healthy Kids Caucus
 * International Conservation Caucus
 * Senate Women's Caucus
 * Sportsmen's Caucus

Political positions


In the House, Gillibrand was known as a conservative liberal or centrist, serving at the will of a conservative electorate. Gillibrand was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of conservative Democrats. In the Senate, she is known more as a populist-leaning liberal, as she represents a heavily Democratic state. At the time of her appointment to the Senate, a Salon editorial said that Gillibrand had developed a reputation in the House as "a hybrid politician who has remained conservative enough to keep her seat while appearing progressive enough to raise money downstate."

On social issues, Gillibrand is liberal, supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage, health care reform with a public option, a Medicare for all health care system, and taxpayer-funded abortion. Gillibrand is a strong advocate for government transparency, and releases substantially more personal and scheduling information than most members of Congress. Although a supporter of gun rights while in the House, Gillibrand has since become a supporter of gun control; while Gillibrand received a 92% rating from the National Rifle Association as a member of the House of Representatives in 2008, she received a 0% rating from the NRA as a senator in 2012.

Gillibrand received an 8% rating from the American Conservative Union, 70% from Americans for Democratic Action, and 90% from the American Civil Liberties Union. OnTheIssues.org rates Gillibrand as a "hard-core liberal." According to the National Journal, Gillibrand went from being tied for the tenth most liberal Senator in 2010, to being one of the two most liberal Senators in 2011.

Personal life
Gillibrand lives in the town of Brunswick with her husband Jonathan and their two sons. She met Jonathan, a venture capitalist and British national, on a blind date. Jonathan was meant to be in the United States for only a year while studying for his Master of Business Administration at Columbia University, but he stayed in the country because of his relationship with Kirsten. The two were married in a Catholic church in Manhattan in 2001. Because of the requirements of Kirsten Gillibrand's office, the family spends most of its time in Washington. In 2011, the Gillibrands sold their house in Hudson and purchased a home in Brunswick to be closer to Kirsten's family in Albany.

The Gillibrands had their first child, Theodore, in 2003, and their second son, Henry, in 2008. Gillibrand is the sixth woman to have a child while serving as a member of Congress. She continued to work until the day of Henry's delivery, for which she received a standing ovation from her colleagues in the House the next day.

= Resources =