NARAL to Endorse Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for NY Senate

by Jen Nedeau · 2009-05-14 17:19:00 UTC
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This just in from Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily Politics:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will pick up the endorsement Friday of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, a leading abortion-rights group that in the past has backed all of the senator's rumored Democratic challengers, the DN's David Saltonstall reports.

"We see a champion in Kirsten Gillibrand," NARAL president Kelli Conlin told the DN. "We want to back that champion and be a part of her victory."
Gillibrand, who was appointed by Gov. David Paterson in January to fill Hillary Clinton's old U.S. Senate seat, doesn't have to run for re-election until next year.

But a number of Democrats - among them Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Steve Israel, and Carolyn McCarthy and Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer - have all signaled they are mulling a primary against the upstate Gillibrand, whose congressional record has often leaned to the right (although not, it should be noted, when it comes to abortion rights).

Enter NARAL, who, like Sen. Chuck Schumer, is hoping that an early announcement of support Gillibrand - coupled with her prodigious fundraising - will scare the other Democrats away.

"Is this somewhat motivated by our desire to not see a bloodbath of a primary in advance of a general election?" Conlin said. "Absolutely. But it is backed up by solid record."

Conlin said this endorsement is the earliest NARAL has ever chosen sides in a race.

Jen Nedeau Jen Nedeau is a media relations professional and a writer based in New York City.
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