ALBANY, N.Y. - Resistance is emerging among Democratic officials against Caroline Kennedy as she pursues Hillary Clinton's seat in the U.S. Senate, with Gov. David A. Paterson bristling over suggestions that her selection is inevitable, according to his advisers, and other leading Democrats concerned that she is too beholden to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
The governor is frustrated and chagrined, the advisers said, because he believes that he extended Kennedy the chance to demonstrate her qualifications but that her operatives have exploited the opportunity to convey a sense that she is all but appointed already. He views this as an attempt to box him in, the advisers said.
"You have people going around saying, 'Oh yeah, it's a done deal,' " said one of the advisers, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the selection process and did not want to anger the governor. "The quickest way to not get something you want is to step into somebody's face."
The governor's frustration follows reports last week that Kevin Sheekey, a top deputy for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who has been advising Kennedy, had called a labor leader and told him that Kennedy was going to be senator, "so get on board now," and that a member of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's staff was helping Caroline Kennedy reach out to unions.
It was not clear on Tuesday whether the governor's reaction would seriously damage Kennedy's chances to win the appointment or if it merely reflected Paterson's desire to regain control of the selection process after Kennedy's very public political debut.
But Kennedy's ties to Bloomberg's political team and her waffling over whether she would support a Democrat in next year's mayoral race appear to be angering some Democrats. On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver became the most senior elected official in the state to say that Paterson should not select Kennedy to the Senate seat.
"If I were the governor, I would look and question whether this is the appointment I would want to make, whether her first obligation might be to the mayor of the city of New York rather than the governor who would be appointing her," Silver said during an interview on WGDJ, an Albany radio station.
Silver has long had a testy relationship with Bloomberg, fueled by battles over mayoral initiatives like congestion pricing.
