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N.Y. / Region


Aide to Senator Kennedy Is Said to Make Contacts
on Ms. Kennedy’s Behalf


Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Caroline Kennedy had lunch in Manhattan with Randi Weingarten,
head of the teachers’ union.

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: December 19, 2008


A longtime aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy has reached out to labor officials in Washington in an effort to help Caroline Kennedy in her bid to be appointed United States senator from New York.

The aide, Michael Myers, is the staff director of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has wide jurisdiction over workplace regulations and other issues important to unions. While Ms. Kennedy and Senator Kennedy, her uncle, are extremely close and speak almost every day, the senator appears to have steered clear so far of lobbying directly on his niece’s behalf.

Several people familiar with Mr. Myers’s efforts said he had contacted the Washington officials to gather the names of their union counterparts in New York, to help Ms. Kennedy’s political team arrange meetings with them, as well as to sound them out about Ms. Kennedy.

Ms. Kennedy has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to consider appointing her to the seat that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been nominated to be secretary of state, is expected to vacate next year.

“I think the senator is very much engaged, and those are the relationships he has,” said Stephen McInnis, political director of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, referring to the international unions Mr. Myers has contacted. The council’s top official, Michael J. Ford, spoke with Ms. Kennedy recently, he said, and planned to meet with her soon.

Mr. McInnis said, “We don’t want to interfere with the governor’s process. For all intents and purposes, she’s on the short list. We’d be happy with anyone on the short list.”

Mr. McInnis and others said Mr. Myers had not pressured the unions to endorse or support Ms. Kennedy. But other union officials noted that Mr. Kennedy had been such an energetic champion of the labor movement, and was so respected within it, that any call from Mr. Myers would carry great weight.

“I think they know enough to know that in New York, you will need the support of labor. And there is no one who is a bigger friend of labor than Ted Kennedy,” one senior labor official in New York said.

At least one call appeared to concern critical comments made about Ms. Kennedy by Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Mr. Appelbaum is also close to two other top contenders for Mrs. Clinton’s seat, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, and issued a lengthy statement last week questioning whether Ms. Kennedy had the experience to be a senator.

Mr. Appelbaum said he was called this week by officials at the United Food and Commercial Workers, his union’s parent organization. “They said that Senator Kennedy’s office had called them at the beginning of this week, asking about me, and why I was saying these things,” Mr. Appelbaum said.

“I didn’t interpret it as a threat,” Mr. Appelbaum added. “I was surprised that they would call to ask about me rather than calling me directly. I also believe that Caroline Kennedy has to speak directly about why she wants to be the senator, and not leave it to others to speak on her behalf.”

Mr. Myers did not respond to an e-mail message requesting comment. In a statement, Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Senator Kennedy, declined to respond directly when asked whether Mr. Myers had made any calls to labor leaders to discuss Ms. Kennedy.

“Senator Kennedy has neither called any labor leaders to discuss Governor Paterson’s appointment nor directed his staff to do so,” Mr. Coley said in a statement.

Unlike nearly every other person aspiring to the Senate job, Ms. Kennedy has never held elective office. Nor, despite her celebrity, did she have many prior connections to the state’s Democratic political establishment.

But she has moved aggressively recently to build such ties, meeting on Wednesday with local officials in upstate New York and maintaining a frenetic schedule of private discussions with politicians and labor officials in New York on Thursday and Friday.

On Friday morning, Ms. Kennedy had breakfast with Gary La Barbera and Edward J. Malloy, two officials at the New York City Central Labor Council. Later in the day, she had lunch with Randi Weingarten, the head of the city’s teachers’ union, who has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mrs. Clinton.

Ms. Kennedy also received the endorsement of Vito Lopez, an influential Brooklyn assemblyman who is the chairman of the borough’s Democratic organization.

Besides enjoying the imprimatur of her uncle, Ms. Kennedy is close to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. One of Mr. Bloomberg’s top deputies, Kevin Sheekey, is intimately involved in Ms. Kennedy’s bid and in recent days has called some of the city’s labor leaders on Ms. Kennedy’s behalf, telling at least one that her selection to the Senate seat is all but inevitable and that they should lend her their support.

Ms. Kennedy’s campaigning has set off an urgent debate among those in labor circles in New York, many of whom are reluctant to abandon longtime allies like Ms. Maloney and Mr. Cuomo, but believe Ms. Kennedy is favored for the Senate appointment. Under state law, the only vote she needs is that of Mr. Paterson, who has sole power to fill a Senate vacancy.

Steven Greenhouse and David M. Halbfinger contributed reporting.



Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company