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NEW YORK (CNN) – Former New York Gov. George Pataki wouldn't say Monday if he is interested in challenging Kirsten Gillibrand for her U.S. Senate seat next year - but didn't rule it out, either.

Asked if he's considering a bid, a coy Pataki wouldn't go any further than: "People have talked to me about a lot of different things."

Pataki's comments came as he was giving the Republican National Committee's response Monday to President Barack Obama's economic speech at Hudson Community College in Troy, New York.

A recent Marist College poll of New York State voters suggests that Pataki leads Gillibrand 48 percent to 44 percent in a hypothetical matchup in next year's Senate race. Pataki's lead in the survey is within the poll's sampling error.

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King denied a Senate bid.

(CNN) – Peter King made it official Monday.

The Republican congressman from New York State announced that he won't take on Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand next year when the appointed senator runs for the final two years of Hillary Clinton's term.

After Clinton announced that she would step down from her seat to become secretary of state, King - the last remanning GOP congressman from Long Island, a former Republican bastion - hinted that he might make a bid for statewide office. But in recent months, most political observers wrote off any actual run by King.

King says it came down to money.

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Gillibrand has won the backing of Harry Reid.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Calling her a "rising star in the Democratic caucus," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Friday that he's backing Kirsten Gillibrand's bid to retain her Senate seat in 2010.

“I am endorsing Senator Gillibrand’s campaign because she is a rising star in our caucus,” Reid said in a statement. “As a working mother with two young children, Kirsten brings unique perspective to the challenging issues we are debating in Congress. In just six month, Kirsten has introduced a number of new and innovative legislative approaches to the problems many families face.”

Reid picked Gillibrand over Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York lawmaker who plans to challenge the sitting senator in next year's Democratic primary. Gillibrand, a former congresswoman, was appointed to the Senate in January to succeed Hillary Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton is set to attend a fundraiser for Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

(CNN) - Former President Bill Clinton will attend a fundraiser for a congresswoman from New York City who's challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next year's Democratic primary.

The fundraiser is for Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Her campaign's chief strategist, Joe Trippi, tells CNN that Maloney has made her decision to run against Gillibrand and will soon formally announce her Senate bid.

Gillibrand, a former congresswoman from upstate New York, was named by Gov. David Paterson in January to succeed Hillary Clinton.

The White House has been hoping to prevent a primary fight next year in New York by trying to clear the field for Gillibrand. Steve Israel, another congressman from New York who was considering a run against Gillibrand, decided against such a bid after lobbying by the White House.

Former President Clinton has not made an endorsement in the race, but his appearance at a Maloney fundraiser will raise some eyebrows. Clinton also attended a fundraiser for Gillibrand earlier this year.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - At 8:30 a.m., Kirsten Gillibrand looks like any other working mom in a minivan dropping off her baby boy at day care and her other son at school.

But one hour later, she is gaveling the United States Senate into session.

Sen. Gillibrand, D-New York, is part of a different kind of "change" in Washington - a baby boom among female lawmakers.

She had her son Henry 11 months ago, when she was serving in the House of Representatives.

"I think it makes me and the other women better legislators, because we really understand some of the struggles that other moms and other families have," Gillibrand said.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-South Dakota, had her first baby, Zachary, 5 months ago.

Even though she's a member of Congress, she has to wait her turn on a waiting list with other Capitol Hill employees at the congressional day care center, which is at capacity. Until he can get in, Henry usually spends his days with a nanny or family.

Full story

Gillibrand said she supports same-sex marriage.

(CNN) - New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand issued a strong endorsement Thursday of the legalization of same-sex marriage in her state.

"New York and the nation are ready to start a new chapter. The time has come for full marriage equality," she said in an issued statement. "I commend the Governor for his leadership on this important issue. If Iowa can do it, so can we."

Her comments come the same day Gov. David Paterson announced plans to introduce legislation seeking to add New York to the growing list of states where same-sex couples can legally get married.

Gillibrand did not endorse same-sex marriage when she was a congresswoman from New York's 20th District. Earlier this year, she indicated that she would back it as a senator.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York's other senator, has also declared his support for same-sex marriage, after initially opposing the idea.

Gillibrand said the GOP is stooping to a 'new low.'

(CNN) - New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand accused Republicans of stooping to a "new low" Wednesday amid reports GOP lawyers have challenged her ballot in the election to name her successor in the state's 20th congressional district.

"Their latest move to challenge my ballot is part of a much larger attempt to disenfranchise legal Democratic voters and delay Scott Murphy's inevitable victory in the 20th," she said in a op-ed on the Huffington Post.

The Albany Times Union first reported on Tuesday lawyers for Republican Jim Tedisco objected to Gillibrand's absentee ballot because the senator was in the district on Election Day.

Thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted in the special election called to fill the congressional seat vacated by Gillibrand when she was appointed to the Senate. As of Tuesday, Tedisco trails by just under 50 votes.

A spokeswoman for Gillibrand said the senator requested an absentee ballot because she did not expect to be able to vote at her polling location because Senate votes were scheduled that day.

"The Republican's challenge is frivolous and without merit," said Gillibrand spokeswoman Bethany Lesser in a statement to CNN.

Lesser also noted New York state law allows a voter to request an absentee ballot if he or she has an expectation to be absent on Election Day. State law further says a voter must intend to be outside of their home county on election day, not the congressional district as a whole. Though Gillibrand was in the 20th congressional district on the evening of Election Day, she did not enter her home county, Lesser said.

Lawyers for Tedisco have not returned CNN's request for comment.

As the race in New York’s 20th congressional district continues to tighten, the Republican National Committee is sending another $100,000 to the state party in New York.

(CNN) - As the race in New York’s 20th congressional district continues to tighten, the Republican National Committee is sending another $100,000 to the state party in New York - the second time in less than a week it’s spent that sum on the special election contest there.

The move comes a day after GOP New York assemblyman Jim Tedisco, running for Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s former congressional seat, told reporters he would have voted against the stimulus bill.

Questions over Tedisco's position - he had earlier suggested he would have supported a modified version of the legislation - had dogged the candidate for days.

Last Thursday, the RNC announced the transfer of $100,000 to the New York State Republican Committee, as fresh numbers showed a vanishing advantage for Tedisco in the March 31 special election.

A Siena poll released the same day suggested his lead over Democratic venture capitalist Scott Murphy had plummeted by two-thirds over the past two weeks, to just 4 points, despite the district's traditionally Republican bent.

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Sen. Gillibrand announced Monday that former Pres. Bill Clinton will appear at a fundraiser next month for her 2010 re-election bid. Gillibrand replaced Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

(CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser for his wife’s Senate successor in New York City next month, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced Monday.

“Both Secretary of State Clinton and President Clinton embody the type of leadership I hope to bring to the State of New York,” said Gillibrand, in a message to supporters. “[A]nd President Clinton's willingness to show his early support for my candidacy could not mean more to me.”

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island has been mentioned as a possible challenger to Gillibrand in a 2010 Democratic primary race. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Nassau County, may seek to represent the GOP in the general election contest.

(CNN) - Newly-minted New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand remains a mystery to millions of her constituents and is facing a possibly titanic 2010 Democratic primary fight, according a new survey.

Gillibrand, a little-known upstate congresswoman before being tapped to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat in January, trails potential primary challenger Rep. Carolyn McCarthy by 10 points, 34 to 24 percent, in the Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.

A plurality of state Democrats - 39 percent - refused to choose either potential candidate, a partial reflection of the fact that McCarthy also remains a question mark to most New Yorkers. Roughly two-thirds of New York voters have not heard enough to register an opinion of Gillibrand or McCarthy.

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Kirsten

(CNN) – New York Gov. David Paterson announced Wednesday that a special election to fill Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s former House seat will take place on March 31.

Gillibrand represented New York’s 20th congressional district until last month, when she was tapped to replace the departing Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

The special election pits Democrat Scott Murphy, a venture capitalist, against Republican Jim Tedisco, the New York General Assembly minority leader.

Both national parties are likely to pump resources into the race - but new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has vowed to compete especially hard in the traditionally conservative district.

Steele told PolitickerNY earlier this month that the contest will be “a battle royale.”

Gov. David Paterson eventually chose Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

(CNN) – A new poll suggests that New York Gov. David Paterson may be paying a price with voters for the way he handled  the choosing of a successor to replace Hillary Clinton as the state's junior U.S. Senator.

Thirty percent of those questioned in a Siena College survey of New York voters that was released today disapprove of the way Paterson is handling his job. That's Paterson's highest level of disapproval since he was sworn in as governor last March.

Fifty-four percent approve of the way Paterson is handling his job as governor, down ten points from last November, before Barack Obama announced that he was nominating Clinton to serve as secretary of state. That triggered a nearly two month long search by Paterson to determine a successor for Clinton, a process was often quite public and at times messy. Paterson eventually chose Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand after sources in his administration reportedly leaked negative information regarding Caroline Kennedy, who was considered a frontrunner to replace Clinton.

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Paterson's approval ratings have slipped.

(CNN)– The perceived chaos surrounding the appointment to fill Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Senate seat has taken a toll on New York's governor, according to a new poll.

New York Gov. David Paterson's approval rating has slipped 10 points over the last month, and now stands at 44 percent, according to a new survey conducted by Marist College.

Paterson - who assumed the governorship after Elliot Spitzer resigned the post - also trails New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg by six points, 47-41 percent, in a potential 2010 gubernatorial match-up. Paterson is also in a dead heat with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, should the onetime presidential candidate throw his hat into the ring. In earlier polls, Paterson held leads over both potential candidates.

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Gillibrand officially became a senator Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - After serving only two years in the House, former Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand was sworn in as the junior senator from New York Tuesday afternoon.

Her swearing-in concluded a seemingly chaotic selection process that drew criticism from across the political spectrum.

New York Gov. David Paterson appointed Gillibrand, 42, to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant U.S. Senate seat last Friday.

The confusion around the appointments of new senators from both Illinois and New York is causing many to call for an end to a governor's ability to appoint a Senate replacement. What's the best solution? CNN's Bill Schneider takes a look. (Getty Images)

Gillibrand is already raising money for her 2010 bid.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Kirsten Gillibrand officially gets sworn in Tuesday as the junior senator from New York — but her campaign to keep her new job has already begun.

The former congresswoman has to defend her new seat in 2010. So she’s already out with a fundraising e-mail to supporters, noting the tremendous costs involved in running a statewide campaign in New York. "[S]uch outreach will cost a substantial amount of money,” she writes. “I hope you remain, as I do, undeterred by this challenge. I hope you will join me in building a well-funded campaign."

If she wins next year’s contest to serve out the remaining two years of HIllary Clinton's Senate term, Gillibrand will be up for election again in 2012.

The moderate Democrat from upstate New York’s 20th congressional district is known as a strong fundraiser who vastly out-raised her Republican opponent in her 2008 re-election campaign. She has already begun the process of closing her House campaign fundraising committee, and moving the $272,000 she had on hand as of the end of last month over to a newly created Senate campaign fundraising committee.

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New York Gov. David Paterson announced his pick of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

(CNN) - More than three times as many New Yorkers in a new poll blame Caroline Kennedy and her team for the messy process surrounding the search for Hillary Clinton’s Senate replacement than fault the state’s governor, David Paterson - although, on balance, his final selection meets with their approval.

Forty-nine percent of voters surveyed in a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday said Kennedy and her advisers were to blame, to 15 percent who pointed to Paterson. Twelve percent blame both, and 24 percent are undecided.

Overall, the state’s voters approve of Paterson’s selection of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, backing the pick 46 to 30 percent, with 24 percent undecided. That margin is higher upstate, where the choice of the Albany-born Gillibrand draws the approval of 55 percent of the region’s voters to 25 percent who disapprove. In New York City, that margin is far smaller: there, the conservative Democrat draws the approval of 41 percent to 34 percent who disapprove. But in the state’s suburbs, her edge falls within the survey’s 3 point margin of error: 35 percent approve, 32 percent do not.

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Senator-designate Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand appears with New York Gov. David Paterson at a press conference Sunday in New York.

NEW YORK (CNN) - New York Governor David Paterson said Sunday that Caroline Kennedy "had gotten no signal from me that she had to withdraw" before Kennedy ended her effort last week to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant U.S. Senate.

Appearing at a news conference with the person he picked to fill that seat - Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand of Hudson in upstate New York - Paterson briefly answered reporters' questions about the Kennedy withdrawal, saying the decision was entirely hers.

"Caroline Kennedy called me on Wednesday to inform me that for personal reasons she had to withdraw," Paterson said.

Paterson was not asked what might have happened if Kennedy had stayed in contention but said, "There was nothing that would have prohibited her from
serving. She took her name out of consideration."

When he announced Gillibrand's selection Friday, Paterson declared, "I believe that I have found the best candidate to be the next United States senator from New York."

In her turn at the microphone Sunday, Gillibrand made no reference to Kennedy, trying instead to fend off criticism of her selection as a little-known congresswoman from a mostly rural district in upstate New York.

Much of that criticism has come from her consistent support of gun-owner rights.

"I grew up in a family of hunters," Gillibrand said. "I very much believe in protecting hunters' rights - it is a core value for our region and our state."

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(CNN) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is congratulating the woman who will replace her in the Senate.

"Today I congratulate Kirsten Gillibrand on her appointment by Governor Paterson to serve as Senator from New York," Clinton said in a statement. "Kristen is an intelligent and dedicated public servant and a dear friend."

Full statement after the jump

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Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand thanks Gov. David Paterson, right, after her appointment to the Senate on Friday.

(CNN) - Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand's promotion to the United States Senate gives the Republicans an opportunity to score a campaign victory early this year.

Related: Paterson names Clinton successor

Gillibrand's House seat will remain open until New York State Governor David Paterson schedules a special election. That contest needs to take place 30-40 days from when Paterson issues a proclamation on a special election - but the timing of that announcement is up to the governor.

Paterson today named Gillibrand to fill New York's vacant Senate seat, which opened up after Hillary Clinton resigned to serve as Secretary of State.

Until today, Gillibrand represented New York's 20th congressional district, which stretches from Dutchess county, at the northern fringe of the New York City suburbs, all the way north to Saratoga, Washington and Warren counties in the northern part of the state and west to Green and Delaware counties in the northern Catskills region.

The district is conservative and was considered a safe Republican seat until Gillibrand knocked off then Republican Congressman John Sweeney in an ugly campaign battle in 2006. Gillibrand won that election by 6 points, and re-election to the seat by 24 points in 2008.

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