The Eye

Gillibrand, who was appointed to the Senate by Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson in late January, raised a whopping $2.3 million just in the two months since she assumed her post.

That is $1 million more than McCarthy raised in all of the 2007-08 election cycle as she won re-election to the House.

This disparity is no surprise, giving that Gillibrand's fundraising skills have been one of her indisputable strengths since she launched her meteoric political career with a 2006 upset of Republican Rep. John E. Sweeney in New York's 20th Congressional District. Gillibrand spent $2.6 million in that race, then ran up $4.5 million in 2008 to defeat an extravangantly self-financed Republican. Her fundraising abilities were seen as a factor in Paterson's decision to pick her to fill the vacancy created when Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton left to become secretary of State.

McCarthy, though, almost immediately issued a public threat to challenge Gillibrand in the November 2010 special election that will fill out the remaining two years in Clinton's unexpired term. The focal point of McCarthy's opposition is the stance against gun control that Gillibrand, more of a centrist than many New York Democrats, took while serving in the House, a position that earned her a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association. McCarthy's initial motivation to enter politics and run for Congress in the mid-1990s stemmed from the shooting death of her husband in a massacre that occurred on a Long Island commuter train, and she is an outspoken advocate of gun control.

There has been polling on a hypothetical primary matchup showing McCarthy with a small lead over Gillibrand, who was little known outside her upstate New York district before her Senate appointment and still is struggling to boost her name ID. But the latest fundraising news may heighten doubts that McCarthy could really muster the resources to mount a formidable challenge.

Another Democrat -- 2nd District Rep. Steve Israel, also of Long Island -- could be a fundraising and electoral threat, however. Israel was among those initially considered by Paterson for the Senate appointment, and he has not ruled out a primary challenge to Gillibrand. Israel has not filed his first quarter fundraising numbers yet, but he ended 2008 with $1.7 million in the bank.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York City's 14th District is also eyeing the race and is no fundraising slouch herself. She ended 2008 with $1.1 million in cash on hand.