Who will succeed Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate?

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

You can now add New York Governor David Paterson to the mix of governors with that awesome unilateral power of selecting a replacement for the U.S. Senate.

Paterson will likely join Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner in having to pick a replacement for an outgoing U.S. Senator. All of this is based on Hillary Clinton officially becoming Secretary of State in the upcoming Obama Adminstration.

I have speculated going back almost a year that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be interested in the seat, especially given that the seat belonged to his father from 1965 until his assassination in 1968.

Paterson has taken himself out of the running (as has Minner, but not Blagojevich) to select himself. The New York State situation is a bit more difficult -- Paterson's promotion earlier this year left the Lieutenant Governor's position empty, in accordance with state law, so a Republican is next in line to run the state.

Clinton's replacement would have to run again in 2010 to finish the term, originally scheduled to expire in 2013.

There is no shortage of top names to select from, including Kennedy's cousin Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg along with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (ironically, RFK Jr. former brother-in-law) and Rep. Nita Lowey.

Though I touted Caroline as a possible VP pick, I still think Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be the best candidate because he's been giving this a lot of thought, and it just might be the right time for him to jump into the, uh, family business.

But perhaps you have a different direction to go with filling the junior Senator seat from New York. Let us know what you think.

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