Caroline Kennedy eyes on Hillary Clinton's Senate seat: report

"I believe that she is considering it," the newspaper quoted her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spoken to Ms. Kennedy about the matter during the past week, as saying.

"A lot of people the last couple of weeks have urged her to do it," added Kennedy, another member of the Kennedy Democratic political dynasty.

Gov. David Paterson, who is responsible for choosing a replacement for Mrs. Clinton upon her expected confirmation as secretary of state next month, told the newspaper he discussed the position with Ms. Kennedy on Wednesday.

"The conversation was informational," Paterson said. "She did not express an interest in the Senate, but we talked about the Senate, so I got that she was just trying to get some information to determine whether or not she would like to have an interest in it. And that was it," he said.

The person appointed by Paterson would serve for two years and then face a special election in 2010.

It is unclear, however, how badly Ms. Kennedy wants to be senator, or how much appetite she has for the unglamorous aspects of campaigning across New York’s 62 counties, the newspaper wrote.

"Hillary Clinton was a superstar, but she worked like an animal," one prominent Democratic elected official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the governor, told the New York Times.

The emergence of Ms. Kennedy comes as a wide network of feminist organizations and prominent female Democratic activists have been mobilizing to lobby Paterson to choose a female successor to Hillary Clinton.