ALBANY (AP) -- Gov. David Paterson has appointed Democratic U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York's vacant Senate seat.

The appointment was announced Friday and requires no further confirmation. Gillibrand replaces Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was recently named U.S. secretary of state.

The announcement comes one day after Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, abruptly withdrew from consideration for the Senate seat.

The 42-year-old Gillibrand has been one of the top contenders in Paterson's selection process, along with Kennedy and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The upstate congresswoman had served as Cuomo's special counsel when he was housing secretary under President Clinton.

Paterson's appointment lasts until 2010, when a special election will be held to fill the final two years of Clinton's term.

The selection of Gillibrand as New York's next U.S. Senator is her first real introduction to much of the state.

Paterson has chosen the second-term lawmaker from the Hudson Valley over a roster of better-known, more experienced New York Democrats to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The fiscally conservative Democrat from Columbia County is relatively unknown outside her congressional district in eastern New York.

So who is Kirsten Gillibrand?

She's the daughter of an Albany lobbyist, a graduate of Dartmouth College and UCLA's law school and a former Manhattan lawyer.

The mother of two young children, Gillibrand worked for Andrew Cuomo when he was the federal housing secretary during Bill Clinton's administration.

In 2006, she defeated incumbent Republican John Sweeney in a GOP-dominated district that stretches 200 miles from the mid Hudson Valley to the Adirondacks.

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