Sen. Gillibrand An Emerging Force
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has accomplished a lot for a young political leader, often in the prodigious shadow of her mentor, Sen. Charles Schumer. She is emerging as an elected leader to watch.
She gave us eloquent warning days after taking the Senate job in 2009 when, in a speech in Albany, she borrowed words from Eleanor Roosevelt: "A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."
The economy was already in hot water, and rural concerns were losing ground in New York's clamor to stay buoyant.
Gov. David Paterson made the right choice two years ago in appointing her to fill the unexpired term of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who had been named secretary of state. That choice was affirmed in November when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand earned 62 percent of New Yorkers' votes.
We believe she won those votes for being smart, honest and tireless in pursuit of plain American values.
Gillibrand made the sudden leap from House to Senate without a long time to think about it. Although some claim she switched out a more conservative focus for a more liberal one, we see many of her views holding steady inside a changing and tumultuous political climate.
We've watched her champion military salaries and deliver improved access to higher education for soldiers and war veterans. That overhaul of the GI Bill was written during her first years in Congress, and she's still working to improve it.
We've noted her dedication to family farms and have watched how attentively she listens to what working farmers have to say.
She keeps pushing to gauge and correct dairy prices for inflation, balancing rural agrarian values against controls leveraged largely by commercial farms and growing global competition.
Her leadership skills came to the fore keenly as 2010 came to an end when the Senate repealed "Don't Ask Don't Tell."
President Barak Obama signed that law on Dec. 22 and clarified America's definition of freedom.
But it was a seething commentary Gillibrand published online in the Huffington Post in October 2009 that helped move the legal overhaul to the public arena.
In her charge, Gillibrand, who served on the Armed Services Committee while in the House, brought grass-roots stories of military discrimination and disservice some soldiers experienced to light. And she was able to translate what that meant for all Americans.
"We must recognize that human dignity and respect are part and parcel of who we were as Americans — male or female, African American or Caucasian, gay or straight, bisexual or transgender," Gillibrand said.
The junior senator also worked successfully with Schumer to move the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act into law on the second day of 2011. The funding measure creates a health program to assist thousands of first responders who were exposed to toxins when the Twin Towers collapsed after terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Many from our region rushed to the city to help out in those first days and weeks, and we hope they find support in this law for any health concerns they have suffered since.
As the 112th Congress gets under way, we are expecting the sharp focus Gillibrand brings to issues that affect all New Yorkers to see how she juxtaposes them against the vast spectrum of views held by all Americans.
Gillibrand has to run for re-election again in 2012 to earn a full six-year term of her own.
She is earning a reputation for being a solid spokeswoman for American values, both in New York and across America.
