As a candidate, Kennedy is forceful but elusive

One of the main assets she could bring to the Senate, Ms. Kennedy suggested, was her celebrity itself. It would be useful, she said, in bringing attention to New York’s needs and fighting for a bigger share of federal stimulus money.

“We are losing a very visible, very strong, very powerful advocate in Hillary Clinton,” Ms. Kennedy said. “This is not about me, this is about what I can do to help New York get its fair share, help working families, travel the state, bring attention to what is going on up there. So that’s why I think I would be good.”

Ms. Kennedy said she was very close to Senator Kennedy, and was inspired by his example, but felt no family duty to follow in her uncle’s footsteps.

Asked how much of a role her husband, Edwin A. Schlossberg, might take in her political career — on the hustings in Watertown, N.Y., say, or other political way stations in the north country — she hinted that he might be busy elsewhere, given his own career as the head of a prominent design firm. But she said no one could have a more supportive husband.

“The more time I spend with him, the happier I am,” she said.

Downplays privilege
Ms. Kennedy said she had spent some time in the Catskills and the Adirondacks; when asked her favorite place in the state outside of the city and Long Island, she said, “I like visiting historical sites. I loved visiting the battlefields of Saratoga.”

Ms. Kennedy said her finances had been affected by the economic crisis, though “not as badly as a lot of people’s. I’m lucky that I’m not afraid of losing my home, and my husband still has a job.”

But she declined to discuss details. “If I’m chosen for this I’m going to comply with every kind of disclosure; if the governor has questions about my finances, I’ll talk to him.”

She said she employed one household worker as well as a personal assistant — though she said she had far more experience managing people at the Department of Education. “Building a staff is something that I would have no trouble doing,” she said.

And she said she would have no trouble relating to New Yorkers of more modest means. “I have lived a very advantaged life, and I am very fortunate,” she said. “But our family tradition has been always to work for, as I said, for working people.”

Though Ms. Kennedy’s own children have attended private schools, she said her experience working with city schools had given her ample understanding of what students and their parents are facing.

“Many of those families are headed by women who are poor, and the kids are poor,” she said. “So I think that I’ve seen firsthand, and extensively across the city, the need that there is, the disadvantage that those kids are at when they enter school without the kind of support that kids from more fortunate backgrounds have, and the long-term impact of that on our city.”

Demurred
Asked to name an issue on which she would depart from Democratic Party orthodoxy, Ms. Kennedy seemed to have trouble identifying one.

“If we’re not comparing it to anybody specifically, it’s hard to say where I disagree,” she said.

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But when asked how she might differ with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or with Governor Paterson, who has sole authority to make the Senate appointment, she demurred.

“I’m not going to talk about my disagreements with him,” she said. “You’ll find out over time.”

Indeed, Ms. Kennedy, like Barack Obama, the presidential candidate she endorsed, returned repeatedly to the idea of bipartisanship and unity.

“What I think people are really looking for is for people to work together,” she said finally. “It’s something that I take really seriously. We need Republicans and Democrats, all Democrats — people need to look at what we have in common.

“Health care is a perfect example,” she added. “All the stakeholders are at the table. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had different plans, but I think the goal now is to get quality affordable health care. The point now is to find something that’s going to work, to reduce costs and get more people covered. Now is the time for people to come together and focus on compromise. I think that’s one of the things I have going for me.”

Ms. Kennedy came to the interview with two aides, who had reserved the back room of the Lenox Hill Diner, on Lexington Avenue near 78th Street, for several interviews scheduled on Saturday.

As things wrapped up, a reporter tried to pose another question, but she interrupted him.

“I think we’re done,” she said.

This story, As a Candidate, Kennedy Is Forceful but Remains Elusive, originally appeared in the New York Times.

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