This Place called Upstate (cntd.)

My colleague Adam writes below about Kirsten Gillibrand, and perhaps paints Upstate New York with too broad a brush. I'll note, among other things, that Gillibrand is from Columbia County, NY, and was a partner at a major law firm which, although located in Westchester, is still a "New York City firm."

I think Adam is right, however, in that there has been a push lately to find the next Heath Shuler- a kind of mythical Dirty Harry democrat who likes guns (or at least the NRA) and can rough up the GOP come election time. The problem with a lot of these folks is that when it comes to crunch time, they're often not very helpful to have in the caucus.

Case in point- Gillibrand's vote against the bailout in October. She made a lot of noise about how upstate residents shouldn't have to bail out NYC bankers. I understand the resentment of her constituents, as upstate NY has been one of the few areas nationwide which was widely passed over by the housing boom, so upstaters couldn't even cash in on 2nd mortgages and buy big new houses. On the other hand, we can all pretty easily imagine what would happen to government services and tax levels upstate if the driving force of New York's economy goes under. The bailout vote was one of those situations where we remember that we're a republic and not a democracy, and it's important for elected officials who are "in the know" and sophisticated about issues like this to buck the short term requests of their constituents.

On guns, some of her NRA supported positions are pretty extreme, and I can only hope that now that she's representing the Bronx as well as Glens Falls that she'll moderate her views. Pressure from the left on this point- from bloggers, editorial boards, Mayor Bloomberg, and the 2010 primary threat from Long Island rep. Carolyn McNally should help.