| As an upstater, former Representative of NY-20, and appointed Senator, Gillibrand has had to work to introduce herself to New Yorkers outside her old district.
Particularly, she has had to introduce herself to people in New York City and its suburbs. Mostly she does that down there, but Saturday she did it in her hometown at the Somos Conference.
Here's some of what she said:
The most important thing we're facing today is this very difficult economy. There is nowhere in this state where the No. 1 thing on people's lists is not jobs -- "I'm worried about my family, I'm worried about my husband, I'm worried about our daughter, we don't have the jobs we need."
Everything we're trying to do in Washington is to create those jobs. Health care reform was the first step. We want a family doctor for every family in America. That's so important for all our communities.
We have to keep fighting for jobs. We want to be the place where we can see Made in America again. It's so important that we build our manufacturing, that we build our jobs across the state.
I'm also working very hard on immigration reform. We need comprehensive immigration reform in this country.
There are so many issues and so many injustices that we face every day.
We need to have a path to citizenship, we need to change the rules on detention, we need to stop the warrantless home searches. These are changes that must happen now.
Gillibrand also praised the Dominican Republic, and Dominicans in New York, who came to the aid of Haiti after the devastating earthquake.
After her talk, Gillibrand chatted and posed for photos with conference attendees for about 30 minutes, then I caught up with her for some exclusive quote.
About the conference:
Somos weekend is a fantastic opportunity to get to speak to legislators and community activists from all over the state.
The issues we're here to talk about are the issues that all New Yorkers are facing -- a very difficult economy where we need to create good jobs, making sure health care reform works for all families, and focusing on comprehensive immigration reform so we can make New York stronger.
About overcoming criticism of some immigration stands she took when representing NY-20:
I think it's going very well. I've spent a lot of time in the various immigration communities all across the state, listening, learning the issues, and really understanding what the urgent needs are of the immigrant community.
And I've worked very hard over the last year to develop policies and legislative proposals that really will address those concerns, from writing a letter to Janet Napolitano asking her to stop home raids until we have comprehensive immigration reform, to asking for temporary protective status for Haitians in light of the earthquake, to writing legislation to fund English as a Second Language programs for small businesses.
Those are the kinds of legislative ideas that can really make a difference and impact immigrant families and small businesses throughout the state.
And, in response to a question about her recent trip to Haiti:
Haiti was very distressing, mostly because every other house or building I saw was completely destroyed. There was rubble along all the streets through Port-au-Prince.
To fully comprehend what it would take to rebuild Haiti, it's hard to even imagine. I think it will take a 20-year continuous commitment to really rebuild that country.
Perhaps the more distressing part of the visit was my visit to the orphanage. I met 75 children in a facility that was probably designed for 25 children. When you see young children and babies who have difficulty smiling, it breaks your heart.
So I am very focused on legislation to make an investment throughout Haiti for education for the children, and also to create opportunities for more Haitian babies and children to be adopted in the U.S. if they can't find their parents or relatives in Haiti to adopt them.
Gillibrand's position on immigration issues, while representing an overwhelmingly white upstate district with the largest Republican registration advantage of any in the state, no doubt reflected the views of a majority of her constituents.
Now that she has a much larger and more diverse constituency, she has modified her position on immigration to reflect the views of a majority of those constituents.
That's what we should expect in a representative democracy.
To judge from the reception she got Saturday, Hispanic and Puerto Rican leaders at the Somos conference understand that, and are strong supporters of Gillibrand's election this year. |
