With all the talk about Hillary Clinton perhaps becoming the Secretary of State, there is the possibility of an open Senate seat. How would that seat be filled?
If Sen. Hillary Clinton was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as secretary of state in 2009, the governor gets to appoint a replacement.
That term is the elected at the next general election, which is November 2010. Then that choice would serve a two-year term until the regular six-year term is elected in November 2012.
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With a Democratic governor, David Patterson, the replacement of course will be a Democrat. But who should it be?
Since the replacement would have to stand for re-election in two years, he or she will have to either have a fairly high profile now or be able to establish himself or herself quickly. And while the NY metro area has the bulk of the voting population, the candidate should have some appeal in the rest of the state. Hillary Clinton developed that in her first race by visiting many areas of NY in a so-called "listening tour." Rudy G. might decide to run for this seat in 2010 and he would have a certain appeal, so it's important to have as strong an incumbent as possible.
What specific person might be appointed? Here's some possibilities. Please add your thoughts about them and others who might come to mind.
One is former Governor, Elliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign because of the prostitution scandal. Perhaps the scandal makes it impossible for this to happen. However, Spitzer is well-qualified in our age of deregulation, financial collapse, and problems and corruption within financial institutions.
Another is Andrew Cuomo, the state's Attorney General. He is quite personally ambitious. He was elected just two years ago with 58% of the vote and previously served as Secretary of HUD in the Clinton White House.
Senator Schumer first served in the House of Representatives and there are many Democratic House members from NY. Nita Lowey once planned on running for Senate and then Hillary Clinton decided to do so and she put those plans on hold. However, she hasn't really distinguished herself very much. There are plenty of other NY House Democrats. Charlie Rangel, Jose Serrano, and Jerry Nadler are fairly well known but may have limited appeal outside of the NY metro area.
One perhaps totally wild choice is Bill Clinton. He certainly is known and should have no problem winning state-wide. At one point there was talk about him going back to elected office. Only one former president went to Congress after presidential service and that was to the House. (That president was John Quincy Adams.) But why not?
I look forward to your thoughts.