BEHIND THE HEADLINES
After more than a year, Clinton’s back in Western New York
Having decompressed from a presidential campaign, senator gets reacquainted with upstate.
By Robert J. McCarthy NEWS POLITICAL REPORTER
Updated: 07/02/08 7:48 AM
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- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is getting her first look today at the resurrected Erie Canal Harbor.
It has been more than a year since Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the second-largest city in her state.
That’s what happens when you run for president.
But today Clinton “comes home.”
Her presidential campaign behind her, she will help open the resurrected Erie Canal Harbor on the Buffalo waterfront as she returns to the more mundane duties of a United States senator.
That means briefings on alternative energy sources during an earlier Syracuse stop, meetings in Geneva on farm issues, and a gathering at the “Apple Shed” in Wayne County to discuss recent hail damage to fruit trees.
It’s a long way from televised national debates about Iraq and Iran.
But barring an invitation from Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to be his running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, Clinton must now be content with the Apple Shed.
It’s all OK with her, according to allies such as Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan.
“She’s back,” he said Tuesday. “It didn’t work out, so obviously we’re thrilled to have her back as our senator. It’s no different than [Massachusetts Sen.] John Kerry in ’04; it’s over, and you go back to doing what you do.”
But his Republican counterpart, James P. Domagalski, thinks nothing has changed at all. Clinton continues in election mode, he said, just as she always has.
“Her election from our state was simply a setup to run for president,” he said, recalling her campaign promise to create 200,000 new jobs in upstate New York.
“It’s my sincere hope that she can dust off that pledge and put her considerable effort into making that happen.”
Today’s upstate foray marks the first “senatorial” trip for Clinton in months. In the meantime, she made only rare state appearances outside New York City for such major events as swearing-in ceremonies for Gov. David A. Paterson in the State Capitol on March 17.
But today it’s back to business as usual. Paterson will join her in Syracuse, while Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Rep. Brian Higgins, Mayor Byron W. Brown and County Executive Chris Collins will appear with her at the canal ceremony.
Later, she will attend a reception at Artspace, 1219 Main St., a residence for artists in which she has been previously involved.
Much has changed since she last visited Buffalo on June 18, 2007, even then in presidential campaign mode. The canal park she will celebrate today was still the object of major excavation. The state has had two new governors, and Erie County has a new executive.
In fact, Clinton and Collins have never met in their new capacities, though they were both present at a ceremony at Collins’ Zeptometrix Co. back in 2001.
She has come under some fire for missing 97 out of 155 votes in the Senate while on the campaign trail last year, leading to inevitable charges that she neglected her duties. But even some staunch Republicans say that the complaint is unfair, since a Senate staff remains attuned to just about every issue back home — even during a national campaign.
James E. Campbell, the University at Buffalo political scientist who is an expert in presidential elections, said Clinton’s return is going exactly according to script. Many failed presidential aspirants return to places such as the Senate or the statehouse to resume their efforts while still looking toward future political possibilities.
“I wouldn’t for a minute discount the possibility that she will be on the ticket or that she still has ambitions for 2012 or 2016,” he said. “She wants to make sure she’s not subjected to the charge that she neglected her state.”
And even if she has no interest in the vice presidency (or if Obama has no interest in asking her), Campbell said, it all offers a good excuse not to join the presidential nominee on the national campaign trail.
It’s not the same as running for president, of course, but serving as a senator from New York still provides prestige and a platform for expressing her views, Campbell said. “It may not be her first choice,” he said, “but it’s not a bad second choice.”
