Caroline Kennedy, the deeply private daughter of America’s most storied political dynasty, will seek the United States Senate seat in New York being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.Kennedy ended weeks of silence with a series of rapid-fire phone calls to the state’s leading political figures, including Governor David A Paterson, in which she emphatically and enthusiastically declared herself interested in the seat, according to several people who received the calls.“She told me she was interested in the position,” Paterson said at a news conference outside Albany on Monday. He added, “She’d like at some point to sit down and tell me what she thinks her qualifications are.”The governor, who has sole authority to fill the Senate vacancy, insisted that he had not yet chosen a successor to Clinton and said that Monday’s conversation with Kennedy was the first he had had with her since an initial discussion almost two weeks ago.But several people who have counseled the governor on the pending vacancy said that Kennedy has emerged as a clear front-runner, if she proves able to withstand the intense scrutiny and criticism that her decision to seek the seat is likely to provoke.Still, some have questioned whether Kennedy is qualified for the job. Kennedy is now launching a public effort to demonstrate that she has both the ability and the stomach to perform the job, with plans to visit parts of the upstate region. The governor, who has expressed frustration with other elected officials for campaigning too openly, has done nothing to discourage her, said a person who has spoken with Kennedy.
