http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/534240.html...
Kennedy insisted her trip to Buffalo and other upstate cities to meet with mayors was meant as a fact-finding trip to an area that she knows little about.
“There is a lot of interest in me, so when I visited upstate, it looked
like a campaign. But my intention and what I was hoping to do was at least introduce myself and have some meetings and learn a bit. But then it looked like a campaign and people read into that,” she said.
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For upstaters, the wrangling over the Senate seat is worrisome. Every major state post — governor, attorney general, comptroller, leaders of the Senate and Assembly and U. S. senators — are either from New York City or its inner-ring suburbs. Kennedy lives in a Park Avenue apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“I know this is a struggle and a dynamic that goes on all the time, and this is maybe an odd confluence of circumstances that we have right now,” Kennedy said of the downstate-only monopoly on leadership posts.
“But if it were me that were selected, I would try to do the same kind of job Hillary Clinton did in visiting upstate and taking special time to learn about the places I do know less about,” she said.
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But upstate is clearly largely unknown to Kennedy, who, in addition to her Manhattan apartment, owns an estate on Martha’s Vineyard and once had a summer home on Long Island. She said she’s only taken short trips upstate and never a longer period of time upstate.
“I do remember going with my Uncle Bobby (Kennedy) and I have friends who live not far north of the city, not far upstate. My daughter went to camp in the Adirondacks. So, it’s more vacationing. And I have, of course, friends who have moved from upstate down to the city,” she said.
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What exactly she has to offer has been unclear to many. In the interview, Kennedy talked of focusing on improving the economy, increasing access to health care and bettering public schools. But she has not offered up any specific plans to do so.
Her first piece of legislation as a senator would be, she said, to amend the federal No Child Left Behind education law enacted suring the Bush administration “so we can get it right.” She did not say how she would change the law.
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A week ago, in brief responses to The Buffalo News on a dozen topics, Kennedy portrayed herself as a liberal. She wants more gun controls, backs gay marriage rights, opposes vouchers for private schools and the death penalty. She thinks the Bush administration’s tax cuts should be rolled back for wealthy people, but not right now.
Kennedy sought to break off the interview with The Buffalo News Saturday when a question turned to her family’s finances, leaving unasked a series of policy questions.
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