So there won’t be two Kennedys in the Senate after all.

Caroline Kennedy announced Jan. 22 that she was withdrawing her name from consideration for the Senate seat left vacant by newly confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.  So that means Caroline won’t join Uncle Ted in the nation’s capital, but also means that New York Gov. David Paterson must look elsewhere for a replacement.

Many news outlets in New York – including today’s New York Times note elected state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as Paterson’s potential nominee.

Cuomo has certainly made a name for himself in the insurance world lately, reaching a $350 settlement with UnitedHealth Group over inaccurate reimbursements to patients using out-of-network doctors nationwide, and another $20 million from Aetna to join UnitedHealth in creating a new national database to calculate reimbursement rates.

He follows the trail blazed by his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, whose consumer-friendly efforts in that post made him a household word and shoo-in for governor, a position he resigned from after some non-consumer-friendly actions while in office.

In an announcement of the initial UnitedHealth settlement, Cuomo addressed the “tough economic times” Americans were facing and dubbed the database agreement a key part of “health care reform.”

Sounds to me like Mr. Cuomo’s campaign for senator started weeks ago.