Female legislators back Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

"As women who serve in a male-dominated body, we understand the importance of having women's voices," said Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan. "There are, I believe, only 17 of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate who are women, and we believe that we should be expanding that number, not diminishing it."

"Many New Yorkers may not know one of our U.S. senators as well as they know the other," said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, referring to Sen. Charles Schumer. "And that's because, of course, she was not elected to the U.S. Senate -- although she won her House seat twice in a row. And so New Yorkers need to get to know Sen. Gillibrand better, and this election process is going to ensure that they do."

"I would say that she's so supportive of what we used to call the kitchen-table issues -- they're the ones that matter most to people," said Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Westchester. " ... How do I feed my family? How do I pay the taxes? They are more and more important issues as we are going through a period of severe economic recession."