Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will seek the U.S. Senate seat Hillary Clinton is vacating to become secretary of state.

Kennedy called Governor David Paterson of New York yesterday to “express her interest in the job,” Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield said. A Dec. 3 conversation between them was just for information purposes, the spokesman said. Kennedy’s spokesman, Stefan Friedman, confirmed she is seeking the Senate seat.

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein also said Kennedy is seeking the job.

“She told me this is something she wants to do,” Klein said yesterday. He was Kennedy’s boss as she helped raise $65 million from foundations as head of the school system’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. “It grew out of the work she did for us, and the campaigning she did” for President-elect Barack Obama, Klein said.

Kennedy, 51, was six days shy of her sixth birthday when her father was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. After avoiding politics for much of her adult life, she endorsed Obama in January and campaigned for him around the country, spoke at the Democratic National Convention and helped select Joseph Biden as his running mate.

Paterson has said he wouldn’t announce his appointment until Clinton is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the secretary of state job. Hearings on Clinton’s appointment can’t begin in the Senate until after Jan. 20 when Obama takes the oath as president. Some officials close to Clinton have publicly questioned whether Kennedy has the credentials for the job, the New York Times reported today.

Call to Sharpton

Kennedy also placed a call today to New York civil rights activist Al Sharpton and “expressed to me her interest” in the Senate seat, Sharpton said.

“My knowledge of her in the area of education and on behalf of children generally, the fact that she has written several books, and her other civic involvement more than qualifies her to be senator,” Sharpton said in an e-mail.

Her cousins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 54, and Kerry Kennedy, 49, each said within the past two weeks that the family hoped Paterson would appoint her. If appointed, she would be taking the seat her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, held from 1964 to June 1968 when he was gunned down in Los Angeles while running for president.

“The governor is making up his mind, but there’s no one like Caroline; she’s unique,” Kerry Kennedy said, noting her cousin’s accomplishments as a best-selling author of books on civil liberties and political courage and as a fundraiser for New York City schools. “I think we’d be lucky to have her” representing the state, Kerry Kennedy said.

Recruited Kennedy

Klein, who recruited Caroline Kennedy to form the New York City Education Department’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, credited her with creating a philanthropic framework that has raised more than $400 million, including $51 million from the foundation headed by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates.

“I think she’d be terrific,” Klein said last week. “She’d add great luster to the position and have a lot of talented people to draw on.”

She also attracted praise, if not endorsements, from Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the past two weeks.

Obama, who won her support last January and named her to a three-person team that helped select U.S. Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate, described Kennedy on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 7 as a “one of my dearest friends” and “a wonderful American, a wonderful person.”

‘Hard-Working, Honest’

A week ago, Bloomberg called her a “hard-working, honest” woman who “understands the issues” and “can do anything.” The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

A Dec. 10 Marist College poll reported that Caroline Kennedy and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is divorced from Kerry Kennedy, each received 25 percent support as the favorite for the Senate among the state’s registered voters. Kennedy got 31 percent among Democrats to Cuomo’s 21 percent. The poll had a 4.5 percentage point margin of error.

Caroline Kennedy lives in Manhattan with her husband, museum designer Edwin Schlossberg, and their three children, ages 20, 18 and 15.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York City Hall at hgoldman@bloomberg.net; Christopher Stern in Washington at cstern3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 16, 2008 06:07 EST