Governor meets with Kennedy about Senate post

Gov. David Paterson met with Caroline Kennedy on Saturday for their first formal discussion about her interest in being appointed to the U.S. Senate, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting, which may suggest that the long, and at times circuslike, selection process may be drawing toward an end.

About 10 potential candidates for the seat, which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to vacate soon to become secretary of state, have filled out lengthy questionnaires from Paterson about their work history, finances and other information.

The interview on Saturday is one of several that Paterson has said he will conduct over the next few days with those interested in the job.

Some of them, such as Reps. Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney; Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell; and Thomas Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, met with Paterson in previous weeks.

But the interview is likely to carry special weight for Kennedy, whose uneven public audition for the job — including a campaign-style swing through upstate New York and a series of difficult interviews with reporters — punctured the early air of inevitability that accompanied her decision to seek the seat.

Aides to Kennedy declined to comment on the meeting. Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Paterson, confirmed that the two met in Paterson's Midtown Manhattan office, but would not elaborate.

"The governor has had conversations with a number of candidates for the Senate seat," Heller said in a statement. "The details of those discussions will remain private."

It is unclear whether Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, another leading contender for the job, has told the governor whether he desires the appointment, though Paterson said a few days before Christmas that the Senate seat had come up in conversations between him and Cuomo.

A spokesman declined to say whether Cuomo and Paterson had held any more formal discussion about the Senate seat.