Rebranding Gillibrand: Can New York's Junior Senator Remain a Conservative Democrat? (Politics) (Kirsten Gillibrand‪)‬

WHEN DEMOCRATS swept into the House in 2006, their new majority was constructed by moderates like Kirsten Gillibrand. Like many freshman Democrats that year, she campaigned against corruption--her opponent, incumbent John Sweeney, was tangled in a lobbyist scandal and his wife had filed a police report alleging abuse. Gillibrand won her upstate New York district by running to the right: she campaigned against amnesty for illegal immigrants, promised to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, and pledged to protect gun rights. After winning by six points, she joined the conservative-leaning Blue Dog Coalition. Gillibrand kept her word. In her first term, she voted against McCain-hatched immigration reform, assailed Bush's bailouts, and received a perfect 100 percent rating from the NRA. She crushed her Republican challenger by 24 points in 2008 and bragged that her voting record was "one of the most conservative in the state." Now, after her surprise appointment to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat, liberals in the media, in her party, even in her expanding staff are determined to teach this Blue Dog new tricks.