Caroline Kennedy: Thank God some NY elected officials are speaking out against her appointment.

[HeraldSquare212]

Mayor’s Aide Pushes Hard for Kennedy
By MICHAEL BARBARO and RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: December 17, 2008


When a powerful labor leader picked up the phone this week, he was surprised to hear the voice of a top aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York.

The aide, Kevin Sheekey, a deputy mayor, made it clear: Caroline Kennedy is going to be the next senator from New York, “so get on board now,” according to a person with direct knowledge of the call.


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But now, it is setting off a backlash among some Democrats who see in her well-orchestrated emergence the same message of inevitability and entitlement that surrounded Mr. Bloomberg’s successful bid for a third term — a campaign overseen by Mr. Sheekey.

They worry that the Bloomberg administration’s advocacy for Ms. Kennedy will only reinforce her image as a privileged Upper East Sider whose biggest base of support is from Manhattan’s exclusive social set.

“It appears to be another case of central casting by the city’s cognoscenti,” said a Democratic city councilman, John C. Liu. “It’s amazing how much it’s all about the upper crust.”

Rory I. Lancman, a state assemblyman, said that there was “a growing concern that high public office is being reserved for a better class of people — people who can buy into it like Michael Bloomberg or people who can come into it through their celebrity like Caroline Kennedy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/nyregion/18bloomberg.html?_r=1