Gillibrand's Race for the 20th

Kirsten Gillibrand is mentioned in a recent (June 7, 2006) NYTimes Op-Ed, Can the Democrats Win Back Congress? By FRANCIS X. CLINES

...In New York, the Republican seat vacated by the retirement of Representative Sherwood Boehlert is clearly up for grabs, and four-term Representative John Sweeney [R NY] is facing a tough challenge from lawyer Kirsten Gillibrand. The Democrats are banking on a lift from their state ticket, which has Attorney General Eliot Spitzer running for governor — a race polls show him winning in a landslide — and Senator Hillary Clinton as a shoo-in for re-election...

The article goes on to mention that...

This year, as ever, incumbents are trouncing challengers in building campaign war chests, by a five to one margin.

But that is not the case in the Gillibrand race. She's raised almost as much money as he has and in the last quarter he barely outpaced her. Plus he's paid for four mailings and a TV ad to date since then.

The polls suggest that this could be an historic election. ... The driving force in the election could be the surprisingly large gap that polls are showing right now in support for Democrats and Republicans. Last month, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that voters favored a generic Democratic Congressional candidate over a generic Republican, 44 to 33 percent.