Family will have to convince Caroline Kennedy to bid for Senate seat

Albany (New York), Dec.8 (ANI): Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, will in all probability, look to the Kennedy clan to convince her to push to be appointed to Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.

"Right now, it's more of a family push than her own," the New York Daily News quoted, a source, as saying.

State Governor David A. Paterson has said he has yet to make up his mind whom he will tap to fill the seat that becomes vacant next month if Clinton is confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state.

After speaking with Kennedy about the seat on Wednesday, Paterson wasn't sure whether she was serious or "just sticking a toe in the water," his aides said.

Her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said she is seriously considering the seat. A host of elected Democrats believe it would be hard for Paterson to deny Kennedy the seat if she wants it, particularly given her ties to Obama.

Obama warmly praised Kennedy on Sunday, but stopped short of backing her to replace Clinton.

"Caroline Kennedy has become one of my dearest friends and is just a, a wonderful American, a wonderful person," he told "Meet the Press."

"But the last thing I want to do is get involved in New York politics," Obama said.

"I've got enough trouble in terms of Illinois politics."

Meanwhile, The New York Observer reports that New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, the new head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has reached out to Kennedy to discuss Clinton's seat.

New York's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, who was the previous head of the campaign committee, said yesterday he would not publicly push for Kennedy or any one of the other 10 potential candidates - including state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. (ANI)