Questions linger after Kennedy withdraws Senate bid

WASHINGTON -- For those riveted by the drama over who will succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate: The end is near.

At noon Friday in Albany, 36 hours after Caroline Kennedy's abrupt withdrawal from consideration, New York Gov. David Paterson plans to announce his pick.

It was a long and winding selection process and most of the dozen-plus prospects, including top-tier contenders such as Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, kept low profiles.

Kennedy's bid was public, awkward and brief. She exited just past midnight Thursday in a sentence: "I informed Gov. Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate."

In his own statement Thursday, Paterson said he talked privately with Kennedy on Wednesday and did not respond to inquiries "to allow her time to deliberate." He said of her withdrawal, "This decision was hers alone."

Paterson also said he learned of nothing that "created a necessity for any candidate to withdraw. Any speculation to the contrary is both inaccurate and inappropriate." His statement came after an online New York Times report that Kennedy withdrewover an issue involving taxes and a household employee.

Kennedy spokesman Stefan Friedman did not return calls.

Kennedy's cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr., said Thursday morning on MSNBC that her extended family strongly supported her quest but "within her immediate family, there may have been some reluctance."

It was unclear whether Paterson had planned to choose Kennedy. She was a top contender along with Cuomo and Gillibrand. "They were always the three that people thought the governor was focused on," said Democrat Joel Benenson, a New York-based pollster.

While Kennedy brought her family's celebrity and public-service tradition, Cuomo led in polls of state voters, and Gillibrand is a rising party star.

Cuomo was secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration and won his current job in 2006. An activist attorney general, he has investigated appraisal fraud in mortgages, corruption in the student lending industry and manipulation of reimbursement rates by health insurers. All led to changes that help consumers.

Gillibrand, a centrist Democrat who supports gun rights, has shown growing strength in a Republican-leaning House district that ranges up the Hudson River from suburban New York City to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks. In 2006, she raised $2.6 million and beat GOP incumbent John Sweeney, 53%-47%.

Last year, former state GOP chairman Sandy Treadwell spent $7 million against Gillibrand. She raised $4.6 million and defeated him 62%-38%.