Kennedy: I'll Have to Work 'Twice as Hard' If Picked for Senate

Dec. 26, 2008 -- Caroline Kennedy said in an interview today that if she's appointed to the Senate, she'll have to work "twice as hard" as anybody else to prove herself. Considering her efforts so far to get the appointment, it's easy to see why she'd feel that way.

It's bad enough to have to run around places like Buffalo and Syracuse in December, but Kennedy is getting the full New York treatment. And finding that running for political office in New York isn't easy -- even when your name is Kennedy and you only need one person's vote to win.

That one person, of course, is New York Gov. David Paterson, who can appoint anybody he wants to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Paterson says he won't make up his mind until after Clinton steps down, and that won't happen until she's confirmed as secretary of state, which would probably be in mid-January.

When a reporter referred to Kennedy as "the front-runner" earlier this week, Paterson tartly shot back, "How is she the front-runner?"

Paterson's aides say the governor isn't bluffing; despite the frenzied speculation around Kennedy, he truly hasn't made up his mind.

"There is no front-runner," a senior aide to Paterson told ABC News today. "He is looking at the potential candidates all on their own merit. There is no big dog in this race."

Paterson seems amused by all the speculation. "This whole thing sounds more like the prelude to a high school musical than the choosing of a senator," he told reporters earlier this week.

It's actually an appointment, not a race, but you wouldn't know it by watching Kennedy's movements around the state over the past couple weeks. She's visited with upstate mayors, dined with the Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia's in Harlem, talked to labor leaders and hired a team of political strategists.

But if it's a campaign, it hasn't exactly been a smooth one. Some of the first images of candidate Caroline were of her briskly walking away from the TV cameras as reporters shouted questions. Then she refused to disclose basic information about her personal finances -- the kind of stuff she will be required to disclose if she becomes a senator.

Kennedy says she'll disclose everything that is required if she gets appointed. She also promises to be more accessible.

"If I were to be selected," she told the Associated Press, "I understand that public servants have to be accessible."

All of this, of course, has played well with the New York news media.