User:MattWade/Gillibrand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doing... Intro is not done, but it's a good start. upstateNYer
Kirsten Gillibrand | |
---|---|
United States Senator from New York | |
Assumed office January 26, 2009 | |
Preceded by | Hillary Rodham Clinton |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th district | |
In office January 3, 2007 – January 26, 2009 | |
Preceded by | John E. Sweeney |
Succeeded by | Scott Murphy |
Personal details | |
Born | Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik |
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic Party |
Spouse | Jonathan Gillibrand (m. 2001) |
Children | Theodore Gillibrand (b. 2003) Henry Gillibrand (b. 2008) |
Residence | Brunswick, New York |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College (B.A., 1988) UCLA School of Law (J.D., 1991) |
Occupation | Attorney Politician |
Signature | |
Website | Official Senate Website Campaign Website |
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand (/ˈkɪərstən ˈdʒɪl[invalid input: 'ɨ']brænd/, KEER-stən JIL-ə-brand;[Note 1] born December 9, 1966) is the junior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being appointed to the Senate by New York Governor David Paterson in 2009, she was elected twice to the House of Representatives, representing New York's 20th congressional district.
Gillibrand was born to a politically influential family in the Albany area. Both her parents are attorneys and her father is also a well-known lobbyist. Her maternal grandmother was a leader in the powerful Albany political machine that lasted from the 1940s to the 1980s. Gillibrand is a 1988 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies; there she became functionally fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She received her Juris Doctor from UCLA Law School in 1991 and passed the bar the same year. She was an associate in the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in Manhattan before serving as special counsel in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Following that, she became a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
Gillibrand won an upset congressional election in November 2006 against incumbent John E. Sweeney; her reelection campaign in 2008 against Sandy Treadwell was significantly easier. In December 2008, President Barack Obama nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State, leaving an empty seat in the New York senate delegation. After significant deliberation, Governor David Paterson appointed Gillibrand to fill the seat. Gillibrand was required to run in a special election in 2010, which she won by a safe margin. Her term ends in 2013 and she is currently running for reelection in 2012.
Originally known in the House for conservative and centrist liberal views, since her appointment to the Senate, Gillibrand has been seen more as a progressive Democrat. In both cases, her viewpoints were significantly defined by her constituency (a heavily Republican congressional district versus a largely liberal US state). In the House, Gillibrand was an opponent of strict gun control, against amnesty for illegal immigrants, and she voted twice against the 2008 bailout of the US financial system. In the Senate she focused on support of gay rights, scaled back her former support of gun rights, and expanded her views on immigration through support of the DREAM Act; she is best known for championing both the repeal of Don't ask, don't tell and the adoption of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.
Gillibrand recently moved to Brunswick, where she lives with her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, a venture capitalist and British national, and their two sons, Theodore and Henry.