Zankel to be site of U.S. Senate debate

Skidmore College will be the location on Wednesday, Oct. 17, of the only debate featuring candidates for the U.S. Senate from New York.

In conjunction with Time Warner Cable's 24 hour news channels NY1, NY1 Noticias, and YNN, Skidmore will host a debate between U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican challenger Wendy Long. The one-hour debate will begin at 7 p.m. in the College's Arthur Zankel Music Center. It will replay at 10 p.m. on the Time Warner Cable system and then followed by a 30-minute statewide wrap-up show.

Co-hosted by Capital Tonight's Liz Benjamin and NY1′s Political Anchor Errol Louis, this debate between the senate candidateswill air live statewide on YNN, NY1, NY1 Noticias, and be streamed live on YNN.com.

Tickets to the event in Zankel's Ladd Concert Hall are no longer available. However the debate will be streamed live at Skidmore's Gannett, Emerson, and Davis auditoriums, all located in Palamountain Hall.

Gillibrand, a resident of Brunswick, N.Y., served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2006 to 2009, when she was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat left vacant by Hilary Rodham Clinton. Gillibrand won a special election to complete Clinton's term in 2010.

She is a member of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, Environment and Public Works Committee, and Special Committee on Aging.

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Gillibrand earned a J.D. degree at UCLA.

Manhattan resident Long is currently a member of Gov. Mitt Romney's Justice Advisory Committee. She previously served as a law clerk to Judge Ralph K. Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; and earlier was a New York law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She is a former litigator at Kirkland & Ellis.

Long also is a Dartmouth College graduate who was named a fellow at the Claremont Institute. She earned a J.D. degree at Northwestern University School of Law.