Caroline.

Kennedy Endures Rough Start in Bid for Senate Seat
Ties to N.Y. Mayor Among Complaints Of Some Democrats

Caroline Kennedy, praised for her work in the New York City school system, talks with City Hall Academy students. (2004 Photo By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press)

NEW YORK -- Caroline Kennedy, who is seeking appointment to New York's soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat, is facing sharp criticism from rivals, intense scrutiny from the media and disparagement over everything from refusing to disclose her finances to not voting in some past elections.
In the second week of a public introduction that even some supporters say has not gone smoothly, Kennedy is also facing resistance from some Democrats over the support of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), one of her highest-profile backers.
Bloomberg has said he is not endorsing Kennedy, and the decision is up to Gov. David A. Paterson (D), who alone has the power to make the appointment to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate seat. But Bloomberg and Kennedy worked together on school reform issues in the city, and he offered strong praise for her in the face of some of the criticism.
"I happen to have worked with her," Bloomberg said Monday. "She has worked in the New York City school system. She is intelligent, competent, knows as much about the issues, I think, as most people that run for senator or have been our senators in the past."
In addition to words of praise, Bloomberg's top political aide, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, has been actively lobbying top union leaders and others to support Kennedy's bid. "The Bloomberg operation is behind this big," said Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College. "He's the capo di tutti capi" -- boss of bosses. "He's using his influence to perhaps have someone in the U.S. Senate who he supports."
Bloomberg, a billionaire who ran for mayor as a Republican before switching to independent, has used his personal fortune to help fund Republican candidates in state elections, making him disliked in New York's Democratic circles. Also, many Democrats said the mayor's heavy-handed tactics to push the City Council to overturn its term limits law -- to allow Bloomberg to run for a third term next year -- left many bruised feelings.
Thus, they said Kennedy's bid for the Senate could suffer if she is seen as too close to the mayor and if Bloomberg's aides use the same high-pressure tactics to garner support for her that were used to overturn term limits.
"It's pretty obvious the mayor's fingerprints are all over it," said John C. Liu, a City Council member who has clashed with Bloomberg. "The term limits fight doesn't necessarily help Caroline. The way in which this campaign is being waged, for a lot of people on the ground it smells like the campaign on term limits."
Because Bloomberg and Kennedy are both wealthy residents of Manhattan's Upper East Side, Liu said, "there's a pervasive sentiment that it's only about the rich and the famous."
Liu said he was conflicted, because he considers Kennedy a sister, although he met her just recently; Liu was named John after her father, the assassinated president, and Liu's two brothers are named Robert and Edward after two of her uncles.
"It's a mixed blessing, the mayor's support," said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which is nonpartisan and is not endorsing any candidate. "He's very unpopular with the political class." He added that Bloomberg's "help may not be as good as chicken soup."
Kennedy appeared to stumble in her initial answers to written questions from reporters, when she declined to say whether she supported Bloomberg's third-term bid. As a Democratic senator, she ordinarily would be expected to say she would back the Democrat.

Kennedy also appears to have been tripped up over questions about her personal finances and her refusal to respond to the New York media's request for her to disclose any potential financial conflicts. If she were running in a campaign, she would have to file a financial disclosure report; and if she were already an elected official, she would have to comply with disclosure rules. But this is an appointment, so no formal disclosure rules apply.
She has also been criticized for taking just a few spontaneous questions from the press, most recently in Harlem after having lunch with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Instead, her spokesman had the local media submit written questions, and they received written, sometimes general, replies.
Some of Kennedy's backers are blaming her aides for her shaky entry into the tough arena of New York politics.
"I think her handlers are screwing it up," former mayor Ed Koch said in an interview. "And by that I mean her declining to be interviewed and to submit only to written questions. And also her refusal to make public answers to financial questions that she'd have to answer if she got elected.
"It is so silly what they are doing to her," Koch said. "We all know she's a multimillionaire -- nobody resents that."
With all the controversy of her rollout, the appointment that just a week ago appeared close to inevitable now seems less so. "I'm beginning to have doubts about her being appointed by the governor," Koch said.
"I don't think it's a lock," said veteran Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. "There's a lot to indicate that the political community that the governor has to depend on is not too pleased with her." He added, "She has not stepped out well. Her first appearances did not go over well."
Kennedy does have some major Democratic backers. The most prominent is believed to be President-elect Barack Obama, although Obama has publicly said he is not getting involved in the appointment.
But Obama is known to have become close to Kennedy after she endorsed him Jan. 27 in a highly personal and evocative opinion piece in the New York Times, in which she said Obama inspired her the way her late father inspired an earlier generation.
Kennedy campaigned across the country with Obama and later became head of his vice presidential search committee.
Kennedy's endorsement was seen by many as a turning point in Obama's tough primary fight against Clinton, and some of Obama's earliest backers in the state now are pushing for Kennedy's appointment.
"I'm excited because of her relationship with Obama," said Walter Dixie, with the community advocacy group the Alliance Network in Syracuse, N.Y. "If we're trying to move to a breath of fresh air, she'd be perfect for that. . . . She can energize the base that Obama got motivated in central New York."
Whoever Paterson appoints, the next New York senator is likely to rank only 98th or 99th out of 100 on the seniority scale. And because the Senate operates on a strict seniority system, that means the next New York senator would need something extra to command instant attention -- and in Kennedy's case, that "extra" would be her instant celebrity and her closeness to the Obama White House.
"The governor is certainly going to listen to what the president-elect wants, or may want . . . because New York is going to be competing for valuable infrastructure funds," Sheinkopf said.
Some of those she has met around the state have found Kennedy personable, knowledgeable and interested in learning more about the issues facing residents Upstate. She often asks lots of questions and takes notes in a notepad. "I found her to be very warm, very approachable, very down to earth," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who met Kennedy last week in Buffalo.
"She has paid her dues, in my book," Koch said. "And when I say she's paid her dues, she's paid them in blood -- the assassinations of her father, her uncle," Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who held the Senate seat until he was killed while running for president in 1968.
But a Quinnipiac University poll this week found that memories of Camelot and the power of the Kennedy family name may not resonate with younger voters.
The poll found that Caroline Kennedy had a 46 percent favorability rating -- but 36 percent said they didn't know enough about her. Those questioned were about evenly split, 40 to 41 percent, on the question of whether she would be a good senator.