It seems everyone’s interested in taking Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat should she be confirmed as secretary of state next month. Scores of political types have reached out to New York Gov. David Paterson to secure their position, including Camelot matriarch Caroline Kennedy and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. We threw our name in the ring, too, but have yet to hear back. Oh well!

While Cuomo and Kennedy have been getting much of the Senate-related press, there’s a litany of other lesser-known hopefuls with an eye on Albany, including Randi Weingarten. A former teacher and Wall Street lawyer, Weingarten started her union-related career as lawyer for the United Teacher Federation, of which she became the president in 1998. She obviously did well for herself, because last year Weingarten also became president of the American Federation of Teachers.

According to reports earlier this month, Weingarten, whose mother was a teacher, offered her name to Paterson as a potential replacement for Sen. Clinton. And Clinton allegedly likes the idea of Weingarten “keeping her seat warm” if the diplomatic post doesn’t pan out.

Obviously all this piqued our collective interest, so we sent wOw contributor Sue Carswell to get a bit of dirt on Weingarten’s career prospects, what she thinks needs to be done about education in America and why sexuality has nothing to do with one’s stance on California’s Proposition 8.

Sue Carswell: First, Randi, as president of the United Federation of Teachers and of the American Federation of Teachers how many teachers do you represent?

Randi Weingarten: The American Federation of Teachers is a labor union that represents more than 1.4 million working people around the country. The United Federation of Teachers is the local union in New York City, and it happens to be the largest local union in the country with 200,000 members.

SC: Sheesh! That sounds like it involves a lot of travel.

RW: My time is primarily split between New York City and Washington, DC, although I am regularly traveling around the country to work with our many local unions. Last week, I spent some time in Florida to work on collective bargaining issues there. This week, I will be in New York, where we are dealing with a whole host of issues including school closures, proposed state budget cuts and modifications to the law that gave the mayor control of our schools – all to make sure these public policies are good for kids and fair for teachers.

SC: So, why do you do what you do? What do you believe in?

RW: I believe a quality education is an economic necessity, a moral imperative and a fundamental civil right, and that’s why I fight for kids every day … I think we all share a responsibility to ensure that all children have access to a well-rounded and rigorous education.

I also fight to make sure that teachers are supported and respected as the professionals that they are, and that they have a voice. Teachers view their work as a calling, and their dedication and commitment to schools and school communities is vital. No successful reform can be achieved without the input of teachers. As President-elect Obama said throughout the campaign, reform must be done with teachers, not to them. And working collaboratively as we have in many instances here in New York City, we have been able to achieve a number of progressive reforms while at the same time increasing teacher salaries by 43 percent since 2002 – something that was critically important to the recruitment and retention of quality teachers in every classroom.

SC: What are the biggest issues facing teachers today?