Of all the potential candidates to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat in the Senate, Maloney has been the most conspicuous in her efforts to convince David Paterson to pick her for the job. She has talked about how much “clout” she has, she touted endorsements from women’s groups for the job and then she hired Bill Lynch Associates, a consulting firm that may or may not be in the governor’s good graces, to help land the job, and even put out a statement in which she said she had retained the firm “in her efforts to be considered by Gov. David Paterson as the replacement for Senator Hillary Clinton.”
But when she returned a call today to talk about her pursuit of the seat, she seemed somewhat less inclined to talk openly about her efforts.
“It’s totally a very unique situation,” she said. “The governor of New York State is able to make this decision. He will be making the decision and making those determinations. The only thing I have answered, people have said would I be interested and I said yes. And they’ve asked me if I would be offered it would I say yes and I said yes. So that’s about it. So really the comments on this should come from the governor it is totally his decision. I just know what you know that he will not be making a decision until our great junior senator is confirmed which means it will be after January 20. And I think we should all sit back and do our work. I’m working very hard.”
She then talked up her efforts to get “health care dollars for the 9-11 men and women who are very ill,” said she was working to open a new health care facility on Staten Island, and establish high-speed rail between New York and Washington.
“All the other information really you have to call the governor. Right now I have got to run out the door. OK? We can talk later and maybe you can come to our press conference on Monday in Staten Island. OK? Great. I got to run. I got to run. We’ll send you the information. Bye bye.”
