The Times reports today that, early this morning, there were only two possible contenders to replace Hillary Clinton whom Governor Paterson had not called to say “Sorry, you’re not it”: Kirsten Gillibrand, a congresswoman from upstate New York, and Randi Weingarten, the local and now-national union president. Gillibrand is definitely Paterson’s pick, but just before that became clear, there was a groundswell to push Weingarten for the choice.
It didn’t come from teachers; it came from the gay and lesbian community. Above is the image from the Facebook campaign a BGLT group created on behalf of Weingarten, who publicly came out recently. There’s also this story on the Queerty blog.
Did Weingarten ever really consider taking the seat? At first, I thought she was having her name floated simply as a way to raise her image and political stature, not because she was serious. But lately I’ve been getting the sense from people Weingarten consults that she sincerely considered changing jobs. The fact that this Facebook campaign doesn’t hurt that idea.
United Federation of Teachers officials said Weingarten will have a comment on Gillibrand later today.
Hat tip to Examiner on the Facebook campaign.