Senator Hillary Clinton

When Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000, she became the only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate.

She is now a member of the Senate Committees for Environment and Public Works; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She is also the first New York Senator to ever to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

When long-time New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced that he would not run for re-election in 2000, intense speculation began over the prospect of Hillary Rodham Clinton running for Senate in the election. Moynihan himself had Hillary Rodham as his favourite candidate, and urged her to move to New York and take his place. Hillary Rodham Clinton was initially very reluctant to run and forcefully insisted that it was not an option for her. During this time she was still the First Lady in the White House. Eventually she changed her mind and announced that she would indeed run for Senate. During her campaign she was heavily criticized and accused of carpet bagging since she was neither a New Yorker, nor had she been participating in state politics before her Senate race. She was initially expected to run against the very popular New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and forced to withdraw. A much lesser-known candidate, Rick Lazio, took his place and received 43 percent of the votes while Rodham Clinton received 53 percent. Clinton Rodham's campaign had put a lot of efforts into recruiting voters from the traditionally Republican areas of Upstate New York, an approach which proved to be successful.

During the four years in the Senate Hillary Rodham Clinton has been recognized for her bipartisan, pragmatic and above-the-fray way of getting things done. This has made her surprisingly popular even among New York Republicans while she is still well-liked by the liberal Democratic voters. In 2004 a poll by The New York Times revealed that her popularity had improved among the Republicans during the last two years. In this poll 49 percent of the Republican voters said that they approved of the job she was doing, compared to 37 percent in October 2002.

Hillary Rodham Clintons' time in the Senate has however not been without controversies. Only two months after her election President Bill Clinton, her husband, pardoned four men convicted of defrauding the Federal government. The convicts were residents of the New Square Hasidic enclave in Brooklyn, New York. Suspicions were raised since the New Square district has a strong tradition of “block voting”. A Federal investigation was launched that later cleared both Clintons of any illegal activity concerning the pardoning. Rodham Clinton has gained a lot of admirers throughout the country for her tireless efforts to support and increase women's rights both internationally and in America, and her long time dedication to children's issues. During her time as a Senator she has continued to support an expanding health insurance coverage and child immunization programs. She has received a lot of criticism for being anti-family and her pro-choice standpoint on abortions is disliked by many.