Bill Clinton, Mario Cuomo touted for Senate

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) | Sen. Bill Clinton? Sen. Mario Cuomo? Don’t completely rule it out.

The former president and the former New York governor are among several boldface names being touted as possible “caretakers” for New York’s Senate seat — people who would serve until the 2010 elections but wouldn’t be interested in running to keep the job.

As the process of picking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s replacement gets messier, the option may become increasingly attractive to Gov. David Paterson, who has sole authority to name a successor.

A spokesman for Mr. Clinton, Matt McKenna, said Wednesday that the former chief executive isn’t interested in the job and plans to continue the work of his foundation. Mr. Cuomo declined through a spokesman to discuss the Senate seat.

A big name could have an immediate impact for New York in the Senate while letting the large field of hopefuls duke it out in 2010 for the last two years of Mrs. Clinton’s term, according to three Democratic Party advisers in New York and Washington who are close to the discussion with Mr. Paterson’s inner circle.

Two others in the party confirmed that Mr. Paterson is considering the caretaker option. The advisers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment.

“You could find a very senior person who could serve New York well” on an interim basis, said Gerald Benjamin, a political scientist and dean at the State University of New York at New Paltz. “Then you can say to Caroline Kennedy, ‘You know, you’d make a good senator. Run for it.’ And you can tell everyone else that it’s a level playing field.”

Mr. Paterson has made it clear in recent days that he’s getting annoyed by the constant jockeying by supporters of high-powered hopefuls, including Ms. Kennedy, half a dozen members of Congress and state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, son of the former governor.

The candidates — especially Ms. Kennedy — have made daily headlines as Mr. Paterson tries to focus on a fiscal crisis of historic proportions, his first budget proposal and preparations for his first full legislative session as governor.

He took office last spring after disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal.

The caretaker option was exercised last month by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who picked Ted Kaufman, a former aide to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., to succeed Mr. Biden in the Senate until a new senator is elected in 2010. By then, Mr. Biden’s son, state Attorney General Beau Biden, will have returned from a tour in Iraq with the National Guard in time to run for his father’s seat.

A week ago, Mr. Paterson said he favored appointing a senator soon after Mrs. Clinton’s expected confirmation to start building seniority, and he ruled out an interim placeholder.

The process, however, wasn’t supposed to be a big distraction.

Some of the other names circulating as possible caretakers among party operatives include the state’s retired top jurist, Judith Kaye, and former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, now president of the New School in New York City.

Ms. Kaye declined through a spokesman Tuesday to discuss the Senate seat; Mr. Kerrey and Mr. Paterson did not respond to questions Tuesday and Wednesday.

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