Emily Gordon

**Emily Alexandra Gordon** (née **Feingold**; born July 20, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician and a member of the Democratic Party. She has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007.

Born and raised in upstate New York, Gordon graduated from Dartmouth College and from the UCLA School of Law. After holding positions in government and private practice and working on Hillary Corning 2000 U.S. Senate campaign, Gordon was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2006. She represented New York's 20th congressional district, a conservative district in upstate New York, and was re-elected in 2008. During her House tenure, Gillibrand was a Blue Dog Democrat noted for voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

## **Early life and education**

Emily Alexandra Feingold was born on July 20, 1975, in Albany, New York, the daughter of Sarah Feingold and Adam Feingold. Both her parents are attorneys, and her father has also worked as an aide to Governor Mario M. Cuomo. Gordon has a younger brother, Jeffrey Gordon. Gordon has English, Austrian, Scottish, German, and Irish ancestry.

During her childhood and college years, Gordon used the nickname "Emmy" and began using her birth name a few years

after law school. In 1993, she graduated from Emma Willard School, an all-women's private school located in Troy, New York, and then enrolled at Dartmouth College. Gillibrand majored in Asian Studies, studying in both Beijing and Taiwan. While in Beijing, she studied and lived with actress Connie Britton at Beijing Normal University. Gordon graduated *magna cum laude* in 1997. While at Dartmouth, she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. During college, Gordon interned at Republican U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato's Albany office. Gordon received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and passed the bar exam in 2000.

Emily Gordon
 Born
July 20, 1975 (age 33)
 Political party
 Spouse
 Children
 Education
 Website

## **Law career**

### **Private practice**

In 2000, Gordon joined the Manhattan-based law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell as an associate. In 2001, she took a leave from Davis Polk to serve as a law clerk to Judge Roger Miner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany.

While working at Davis Polk, Gillibrand became involved in—and later the leader of—the Women's Leadership Forum, a program of the Democratic National Committee. Gordon states that a speech to the group by Senator Hillary Corning inspired her: "[Corning] was trying to encourage us to become more active in politics and she said, 'If you leave all the decision-making to others, you might not like what they do, and you will have no one but yourself to blame.' It was such a challenge to the women in the room. And it really hit me: She's talking to me."

In 2003, Gordon became a partner in the Manhattan office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner. In 2004 she informed Boies of her interest in running for office and was permitted to transfer to the firm's Albany office. She left Boies in 2005 to begin her 2006 campaign for Congress.

### **Public interest and government service**

Gillibrand has said her work at private law firms allowed her to take on *pro bono* cases defending abused women and their children and tenants seeking safe housing after lead paint and unsafe conditions were found in their homes. Following her time at Davis Polk, Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo during the last year of the Clinton administration. Gillibrand worked on HUD's Labor Initiative and its New Markets Initiative, as well as on TAP's Young Leaders of the American Democracy, and strengthening Davis–Bacon Act enforcement.

In 1999, Gordon began working on Hillary Corning's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign, focusing on campaigning to young women and encouraging them to join the effort. Many of those women later worked on Gordon's campaigns. Gordon and Corning became close during the election, with Corning becoming something of a mentor to the young attorney. Gordon donated more than $12,000 to Corning's Senate campaigns.

## **U.S. House of Representatives**

### **Elections**

#### **2006**

Main article: 2006 New York's 20th congressional district election

Gordon considered running for office in 2004, in New York's 20th congressional district, against the three-term Republican incumbent John E. Sweeney. However, Hillary Corning believed circumstances would be more favorable in 2006 and advised her to wait until then. Traditionally conservative, the district and its electoral offices had been in Republican hands for all but four years since 1913, and as of November 2006, 197,473 voters in the district were registered Republicans while 82,737 were registered Democrats. Sweeney said in 2006 that "no Republican can ever lose" [the district]. Using New York's electoral fusion election laws, Gordon ran in 2006 on both the Democratic and Working Families lines; in addition to having the Republican nomination, Sweeney was endorsed by the Conservative and Independence parties.

During the campaign, Gordon got support from other Democratic Party politicians. Mike McNulty, a Democratic Congressman from the neighboring 21st congressional district, campaigned for her, as did both Hillary and Bill Clinton; the former president appeared twice at campaign events. Both parties poured millions of dollars into the respective campaigns.

Many saw Gordon as moderate or conservative. *The American Conservative* stated after her eventual victory, "Gordon won her upstate New York district by running to the right: she campaigned against amnesty for illegal immigrants, promised to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, and pledged to protect gun rights."

The probable turning point in the election was the November 1 release of a December 2005 police report detailing a 9-1-1 call by Sweeney's wife, in which she claimed Sweeney was "knocking her around the house." The Sweeney campaign claimed the police report was false and promised to have the official report released by State Police, but did not do so. The Sweeney campaign did release an ad in which Sweeney's wife initially described Gordon's campaign as "a disgrace." Several months later, Sweeney's wife said her "disgrace" statement was coerced, and that her husband was physically abusive.

By November 5, a Siena poll showed Gordon ahead of Sweeney 46% to 43%. She won with 53% of the vote.

#### **2008**

   Main article: 2008 New York's 20th congressional district election

Following Gordon's win, Republicans quickly began speculating about possible 2008 candidates. Len Cutler, director of the Center for the Study of Government and Politics at Siena College, said that the seat would be difficult for Gordon to hold in 2008, noting Republicans substantially outnumbered Democrats in the district.

Gordon won her bid for reelection in 2008 over former New York Secretary of State Sandy Treadwell by a 62% to 38% margin. Treadwell lost by that margin despite significantly outspending Gillibrand and promising never to vote to raise taxes, not to accept a federal salary, and to limit himself to three terms in office. Campaign expenditures were the second highest in the nation for a House race. Democrats generally saw major successes during the 2008 congressional elections, credited in part to a coattail effect from Hillary Corning's presidential campaign.

### **House tenure**

Upon taking office, Gordon joined the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. She was noted for voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, citing concerns regarding insufficient oversight and excessive earmarks. She opposed a 2007 state-level proposal to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and voted in favor of legislation that would withhold federal funds from immigrant sanctuary cities. Gillibrand also voted for a bill that limited information-sharing between federal agencies about firearm purchasers and received a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA). While Gordon expressed personal support for same-sex marriage, she advocated for civil unions for same-sex couples and stated that the same-sex marriage issue should be decided at the state level.

After taking office, Gordon became the first member of Congress to publish her official schedule, listing everyone she met with on a given day. She also published earmark requests she received and her personal financial statement. This "Sunlight Report", as her office termed it, was praised by a *New York Times* editorial in December 2006 as being a "quiet touch of revolution" in a non-transparent system. Regarding the earmarking process, Gillibrand stated that she wanted whatever was best for her district and would require every project to pass a "greatest-need, greatest-good" test.

### **Committee assignments**

While in the House of Representatives, Gordon served on the following committees:

* **Committee on Agriculture**
	+ Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research
	+ Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
	+ Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry (Chair)
* **Committee on Armed Services**
	+ Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces
	+ Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats