NEW YORK — Caroline Kennedy announced early today that she is withdrawing from consideration for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in New York, startling the New York political world after weeks in which she was considered a top contender for the post.
Kennedy on Wednesday called Gov. David Paterson, who will choose a successor to former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to inform him that she was no longer interested in the post.
A person told of her decision said that Kennedy’s concerns about the health of her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, who suffers from brain cancer and was hospitalized after suffering a seizure Tuesday, prompted her to withdraw.
Kennedy believed that the job was hers if she would accept it, the person said, but aides to Paterson would not comment. The New York Times
