Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand is an attorney and the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to being appointed to the Senate by New York Governor David Paterson in 2009, she was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives, from New York's 20th congressional district. Gillibrand was born and raised in the Albany area. She is a 1988 graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in Asian studies. She received her Juris Doctor from UCLA Law School in 1991 and passed the bar the same year. She was an associate... in the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in Manhattan before becoming a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Albany. Gillibrand won an upset congressional election in November 2006, beating four-term incumbent John E. Sweeney 53% to 47%. Her reelection campaign in 2008 against Sandy Treadwell was significantly easier, winning 62% to 38%. In December 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State, leaving an empty seat in the New York senate delegation.
more