Mayor Corning [] was an intimate of Polly Noonans for more than four decades.
Gillibrands parents and other family members have described Corning as a father figure who taught the Noonan kids how to hunt, fish and enjoy outdoor pursuits. The mayor was a regular guest of Noonan and her husband at the Noonans house. Corning and Noonan frequently attended political functions, dinners and dances together and the mayor occasionally joined the Noonan on family vacations.
Even on Gillibrands heady day that resembled something of a coronation, her family members could not escape the unquenchable rumors that Corning and Noonans long association produced offspring. It remains one of Albanys great abiding political myths, a mystery wrapped in an enigma, likely never to be resolved.
Until her death in 2003 at age 87, Noonan bluntly dismissed the rumors with salty-tongued retorts. Corning deftly deflected such speculation with his cool, urbane personality. He died in 1983 at age 73.
Noonan and Corning each remained married to their respective spouses throughout their lives. If there was a romance, family members say, the two took the truth to the grave with them.
"I don't think there is any truth to that. Its pure conjecture," Gillibrand's father said.
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Corning and Noonan became close in 1937, when Corning, 28, was a Democratic state senator who headed the Scenic Hudson Commission and Noonan, 22, was hired as the commission's secretary. He was a product of Groton and Yale; she was a tenacious Scot who touted her tartan but did not have a college degree.
There were plenty of smiles as she [Kirsten Gillibrand] was introduced in Albany last week, but Gillibrand is widely disliked within New York’s congressional delegation for her bullying personality and unwillingness to wait her turn in the Washington seniority queue. Already Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, of Long Island, has vowed to challenge Gillibrand in a 2010 Democratic primary because of the new senator’s pro-gun stance. Paterson seems to believe that he has cauterized the intramural Democratic fighting. Instead, the elevation of Gillibrand has widened the wound. Last Thursday, one of the governor’s aides called Andrew Cuomo, asking the attorney general to attend Gillibrand’s unveiling. Cuomo, according to a friend, said he’d be busy reorganizing his sock drawer.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand became the sixth lawmaker to have a baby while serving in Congress when she gave birth to her second son Thursday morning.
Henry Nelson Gillibrand was born between 5 and 6 a.m. at Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland, according to the congresswoman's office. Birth stats: 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 inches long.
Women should leave some jobs to the men
Editor:
Regarding a story that appeared in The Post-Star on Dec. 6: "Rep. Gillibrand announces she is pregnant."
First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?
And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.
Ms. Gillibrand's current pregnancy makes a strong case for my opinion. Ms. Gillibrand was elected to serve her constituency, and while she is away from her elected office she cannot perform those duties. The taxpayers who were duped into voting for her will have to pay for her medical benefits. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, Ms. Gillibrand receives excellent health benefits, courtesy of her constituents. We will be without representation in Congress for a time leading up to and following the child's birth. There will be times when she and the new baby will visit doctors. You can add those days to the total that she will not be serving her constituents.
The current base salary (2006) for members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year. I wonder if Ms. Gillibrand will do the right thing and reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $452.60, her daily salary, for each day that she is unable to perform her elected duties. For some reason, I doubt it.
RON BLACHUT
Queensbury
Here at the Group News Blog Editorial Desk we are thankful to you for having chosen the sacred Christmas season as your special moment to go off on a woman with child (and her husband) in a small village in the Hudson Valley. You bring credit to all of New York's 20th Congressional District.
And when we set up the nativity scene, we know where to go to find an ass.
In March, Gillibrand launched "grants central" on her Web site, and staff members in her D.C. office began counseling local officials on how to apply for grants.
Gillibrand's aides do not write the applications for the groups and officials seeking help. Instead, she said, she and her staff "facilitate" the grants by giving information to local residents and writing letters of support to accompany the applications.
Gillibrand jokes that half of her 15 staff members have become "experts" on grants. Staffers at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service say no other office has contacted them for as much information about available grants.
Gillibrand also started up a regular electronic newsletter listing funding for farmers, firefighters, schools and local government. At first, the newsletter had about 30 subscribers. Now it has topped 1,000.
And the office has tallied up $11.7 million in grants to cities, counties and programs in upstate New York since she started the initiative.
They include:
$184,000 from the USDA to help the town of Schroon, Essex County, pay for the final upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant.
$172,900 from the Department of Homeland Security to help the Davenport (Delaware County) Fire Department buy new vehicles.
$278,000 from the USDA to help the small Catskill Mountain region town of Margaretville, Delaware County, replace a well destroyed by flooding.
In 1978, Sweeney, then 23, was convicted of driving while ability impaired after being stopped in Rensselaer County. That didn't keep him from becoming the county's Stop-DWI coordinator four years later. He was elected to Congress in 1998.Sweeney was also reportedly in a bar fight in 2004.
In 2001, Sweeney slammed a Jeep into a utility pole on his way home from the Willard Mountain ski area, cutting power to part of Washington County. At the time, State Police said Sweeney took his eye off the road to adjust the radio and lost control on the gravel on the right shoulder. No charges were filed.
[from earlier in the story]
In April 2006, the Union College student newspaper, the Concordiensis, ran photos of Sweeney at a college fraternity party. Students quoted in that story and in the Times Union said Sweeney appeared intoxicated, a charge he later denied.
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Sweeney and his ex-wife, Gayle, finalized their divorce in September. The pair exchanged allegations of domestic abuse last summer, with Gayle Sweeney saying she feared for her life. In 2006, the Times Union obtained a State Police dispatch report which showed Gayle Sweeney called police in December 2005, alleging her husband was "knocking her around."
JOHNSTOWN -- Former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney admitted to a gaggle of TV cameras Monday that he lied last year in a news conference when he said "there was no domestic violence" at his home.
Sweeney claimed he lied then to protect his wife because, he said, she was intoxicated and had assaulted him. The police report on that incident, which occurred late one night in December 2005, became public days before the November 2006 congressional election.
"I had to make a choice about whether my marriage was going to survive or I was staying in Congress," the Clifton Park Republican told the media, standing with his first wife, Betty Sweeney, and their three children. "If I stood up and told exactly what happened, I would have lost my marriage."
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Sweeney lost the election to Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. His marriage fell apart eight months later. Sweeney, 51, filed for divorce July 11.
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He described Gayle Sweeney's physical mistreatment of him as "pretty extreme" and said he is afraid of her. Friday, in an interview with the Times Union, Mrs. Sweeney accused her husband of verbal and physical abuse.
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Meanwhile, domestic violence experts traveled to the Fulton County courtroom in support of Gayle Sweeney, saying John Sweeney's counter-accusations that he was injured are "a common tactic" in divorce cases.
Statistics prove that women rarely batter men, said Carole Fox of the Schenectady YWCA. "A lot of times, batterers will get orders of protection," she said.
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Last November, with her husband's congressional seat on the line, Gayle Sweeney, 36, made an 11th-hour campaign commercial accusing Gillibrand of leaking the report in a bid to win office. Mrs. Sweeney told the Times Union last week she was "coerced" by her husband's political advisers into making certain statements defending him on the eve of the election.
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand raced to Capitol Hill, bleary-eyed and sleepless, after helping her 3-year-old son Theo fight the flu, washing his sheets at 3 a.m. and catching a car ride with a staffer to cast her last-minute vote on the House floor.
It was just another day in the life of the freshman Democrat from upstate New York who is balancing motherhood with her job of legislating.
"Having Theo in Washington is a wonderful blessing," Gillibrand says. "It keeps me centered."
But it also keeps her running.
Most weekday mornings Gillibrand, 40, and Theo hop the Metro subway at 7:45 a.m. near the Arlington, Va., apartment where she and husband Jonathan reside with Theo.
During the ride to the Capitol, Theo traces the orange, blue and red subway routes on the maps adorning the walls of the Metro cars until they arrive at the Federal Center station close to the congressional day care center at the Ford Building, which she can see from her office window.
Gillibrand drops him off, then hops the train again, exiting one stop later at the Capitol South station, just a short walk from her office.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — When Kirsten Gillibrand was elected to Congress this past November in a tide of Democratic victories, she soon learned that her campaigning was not over.
This political novice found herself in a precarious position: a Democrat trying to represent an overwhelmingly Republican district extending into the state’s North Country, a onetime Manhattan lawyer in a place of factory and mill workers, dairy farmers and retired military veterans.
Now, even as the congratulatory letters continue to trickle in, she often looks like a candidate who is still on the run. Ms. Gillibrand, 40, spends virtually every free moment scurrying back from Washington to her district to attend town hall gatherings, meet-and-greets at local malls and — yes, already — a fund-raiser.
That frenetic pace reflects her uncomfortable reality: that her victory last fall, like the success of Democrats nationwide, may have been an aberration that could be undone with a swing in the mood of the electorate or by formidable opposition.
Politically, the first term is typically when House incumbents are most at risk of defeat. And Kirsten Gillibrand is among the most vulnerable of this group. Even her closest advisers acknowledged during last year’s campaign that her odds of winning were slim, given that she was facing a four-term Republican incumbent in a district where Republicans outnumbered Democrats by roughly 80,000.
The passion the war arouses in her district was illustrated at that meeting. A constituent rushed up to her and loudly warned her not to support any of the resolutions that Democrats were considering to express disapproval of Mr. Bush’s proposed troop buildup in Iraq.
Pointing directly at Ms. Gillibrand, the man, Dave Browner, told her that many lives were at stake. “You’re in the big leagues now,” he said, his voice rising. “Any resolution will put our troops in danger.”
Then, as he turned and began storming off, Ms. Gillibrand did something that seemed to disarm him: she gently held him by the arm and thanked him for his thoughts. But ultimately, she did not commit to a position.
(As it turned out, on Feb. 16 she voted for a nonbinding resolution denouncing the president’s plan but including two simple clauses expressing support for the troops.)
Roots in the District
Such passions typify the 20th Congressional District, a bedrock Republican area that encompasses dairy farms, stretches of Adirondack State Park and the northern counties of exurban New York City, including Columbia and upper Dutchess, areas that have increasingly drawn New York commuters and second-home buyers.
The Freshman
Settling In
This is the first article in a series that will chronicle Kirsten Gillibrand’s first year in Congress.
At first, the innovation sounds simple enough: Representative-elect Kirsten Gillibrand has decided to post details of her work calendar on the Internet at the end of each day so constituents can tell what she is actually doing for their money.
In fact, it is a quiet touch of revolution. The level of transparency pledged by Ms. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York — down to naming lobbyists and fund-raisers among those she might meet with — is simply unheard of in Congress. The secrecy that cloaks the dealings of lawmakers and deep-pocket special interests underpinned the corruption issue that Ms. Gillibrand invoked as voters turned Republicans from majority rule last month.
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