Women’s Group Backs Maloney

Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s re-election campaign received the support of influential women’s political group EMILY’s List.

The group supports pro-choice, Democratic women for Congress. Its backing provides candidates with a network of donors countrywide, which will be needed for Maloney’s primary challenge from former hedge fund lawyer and Democratic fundraiser Reshma Saujani.

The group cited Maloney’s history on women’s rights, including her law that increased funding for law enforcement to process DNA rape kits. Read more

A Medal for Madame Secretary

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waves to the crowd as she exits the 2009 Barnard College Commencement ceremonies. Clinton, who addressed the graduates, was presented with the Barnard Medal of Distinction. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

MALONEY MAKING THE ROUNDS

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who wants Gov. David Paterson to pick her when Hillary Clinton resigns from the Senate to assume the post of Secretary of State, spent three days last week in upstate New York. In an effort to bolster her name recognition outside her Upper East Side/Queens district, Maloney visited Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester on Jan. 3, 4 and 5.
Though not a complete stranger to the upstate region, Maloney explained that this tour was specifically for candidates who are interested in the Senate appointment.
The Congresswoman, who is chair of a financial services subcommittee and joint economic committee, met with the region’s elected officials and civic leaders to discuss the proposed stimulus package the House is crafting with President-elect Barack Obama. Following the meetings, Maloney was invited to public forums focusing on the economy and stimulus package.
“It was an opportunity to learn firsthand their concerns and create relationships,” she said. “I can hit the ground running.”
Although they are miles removed from her district, the upstate people who Maloney met with were concerned with the development of light-speed rails, much like her Upper East Side constituents, who have waited decades for the Second Avenue subway to be completed.
“They’re all uniformly supportive for improving infrastructure and the ability to compete in the world economy,” Maloney said.
Earlier last month, Maloney held a press conference at Penn Station to announce that the federal Department of Transportation requested a proposal for such light rails to connect the city to Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Utica and Syracuse.
Maloney said her time spent in upstate New York is a valuable experience, even if passed over for the Senate seat.
“I can be a more effective Congress member, working with their representatives,” she said of upstate New Yorkers. “We are one state, we are one delegation. We all work together.”

MALONEY MAKES HER CASE

Most New York elected officials have balked at publicly discussing their chances of being picked to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, however, has unequivocally expressed her interest in that seat.

Though candidness may seem unusual for a seasoned politician like Maloney, all an inquiring mind had to do was ask.

“I’ve always been honored when someone asked me a question, so I try to answer it,” Maloney said. “They asked if I was interested, and I said ‘yes.’”

Since Clinton announced her run for president, Maloney has been on the list of people Read more

AN OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR SENATE

There are days when political things seem so obvious. From the day Hillary Clinton announced that she would accept Barack Obama’s invitation to be Secretary of State, I have believed that the obvious candidate to take her place would be Caroline Kennedy. She is a big-time New Yorker, her name is recognizable around the world, she is an expert on things educational and she is the daughter of the martyred John F. Kennedy, as well as the niece of Ted Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. She’s Jackie’s daughter; and no one needs to ask, “Which Jackie?” She is smart, thoughtful, articulate and an answer to Gov. David Paterson’s dilemma. He needs a Senator who supersedes ethnic and geographic rivalries, who can raise money and win as a candidate in her own right in the same year that he is running Read more

PELOSI VISITS HUNTER

Gov. David Paterson may not have decided who will fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat once she becomes secretary of state, but Hunter College President Jennifer Raab appears to have made up her mind.

“Governor Paterson take note,” Raab said, “we on the Upper East Side and Hunter College strongly suggest that you look no farther than our own Representative Maloney.”

Raab made her plug at a Dec. 1 event featuring Rep. Carolyn Maloney (right) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (center), who spoke about their recently published books, careers and women’s progress in general at a discussion moderated by award-winning journalist Lynn Sherr (left).

Pelosi talked about the significance of being elected Speaker of the House by her peers, who are mostly men.

“It was really so much more than a glass ceiling,” she said. “It was a marble ceiling.”
Both women stressed that much more needed to be done to achieve gender equality. Pointing to the sexist insults and scrutiny that Clinton endured during the Democratic primary for president, Maloney called 2008 “the year the country came face to face with misogyny.”

“Someone should write a book about it and someone has. It’s called Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated,” she joked, referring to her own book.
Pelosi’s book, Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters, is scheduled for release this month.

HOLZER PRESENTS HIS MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, VINTAGE 1860

On the subject of Abraham Lincoln, Harold Holzer—like Lincoln himself—is largely self-taught. In fact, Holzer remembers that his Civil War professor at CUNY did not even like him.

“I decided then that I wasn’t going to be a history academic. I was going to get into it my own way,” he said.

Decades later, Holzer is one of the country’s leading Lincoln scholars. He has written and edited more than 30 books on Lincoln and the Civil War, has toured the country giving lectures and is co-chair of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Read more

HIV/AIDS RESOLUTION

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Jerrold Nadler joined representatives from both chambers of Congress to introduce a resolution calling for quality housing for people living with HIV/AIDS.
“We need to expand access to prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV, and housing is an important component of those efforts,” Clinton said. “Today’s action will help to raise awareness of the benefits of housing in addressing HIV/AIDS, and I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to secure access to safe, secure and stable housing for New Yorkers living with HIV.”

HILLARY’S HOMECOMING

The trip to Denver wasn’t exactly how Hillary Clinton envisioned it would turn out. But Clinton is a woman with a proven track record of managing the unexpected.
Surely she will remain a force within her party and the subject of almost endless speculation, at least and until some other Democrat lives in the White House (and perhaps even then). But in the meantime, she’s our Senator-and her record and reputation in that job make us glad to have her. Read more