After former President Clinton released the list of donors to the Clinton Foundation last week, Chelsea Clinton this morning made a fundraising pitch for the group in an email to supporters:

Dear Friend,

As you know, it’s been an exciting year for my family and I am so proud of both of my parents. This summer, I had the great opportunity of traveling to Africa with my father, where we met Jean Pierre, a young boy in a rural village in Rwanda.

Jean Pierre is alive and well today because of the antiretroviral treatments that the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) was able to make accessible to him. Jean Pierre told us that he wants to grow up to be a doctor and give more people a chance to live a healthy life.

Jean Pierre’s story is inspiring, not just because he’s benefiting from the work of everyone at CHAI, but also because he’s leading by example with his lifetime goal of giving back and serving others through medicine.

While traveling across the country earlier this year supporting my mother, I was similarly inspired by the passion and generosity of so many Americans. In that spirit, I hope you’ll consider supporting CHAI and the Clinton Foundation’s other work in the U.S. and around the world. Gifts of any size make a very real difference.

Gov. David Paterson landed in Iraq Sunday to visit New York troops during the holiday season, his aides said.

Paterson is joining members of Congress on the tour who will share meals with service members, visit living quarters and tour American bases. Paterson will also hold meetings with Iraqi and American officials, aides said. It is his first trip to the country.

He is joined by Reps. Steve Israel of Long Island and Anthony Weiner of Queens, both Democrats, along with Republican Reps. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Ed Whitfield of Kentucky.

“It is a privilege for me to visit the troops during the holiday season,” Paterson said in a statement. “Thousands of families across our state will have an empty place at their holiday tables because a loved one is overseas serving our country. I consider it such an honor to be able to travel to the war zone and personally thank these great Americans for their service.”

Aides would not provide details about Paterson’s trip for security reasons, but said he would be back in New York to spend Christmas with his family. Former Gov. George Pataki visited troops in Iraq in 2004 and 2006.

Israel is one of the candidates seeking Paterson’s nod to replace outgoing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

As of last month, there were 8,300 New Yorkers serving in the active duty military and over 2,000 members of the New York National Guard, Air National Guard, and Reserves serving in Iraq and Kuwait. Soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, stationed in upstate Fort Drum, have been serving in Iraq since May.

Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez, a state assemblyman, who met yesterday with Caroline Kennedy, came out in support of her today for U.S. Senate.

“I found Ms. Kennedy to be very knowledgeable and committed to many issues that are important to me. These issues include housing, education, environmental protection, and economic development,” he said.

“Ms. Kennedy was extremely personable and displayed a great understanding of these important issues, as well as a strong commitment to work on them as a U.S. Senator.

“Based on our meeting and a prior brief discussion, I am endorsing her candidacy for U.S. Senate and will be soliciting support throughout the City and State on her behalf. I look forward to working with Ms. Kennedy as the next U.S. Senator from New York.”

Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, who heads the Senate Elections Committee, called on Governor Paterson today to hold open meetings on picking a Senate replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

It’s a message that Republicans have been making in recent days.

“Although there is a rush to judgment in the media as if we were approaching a political coronation instead of filling an office to represent all the people of this very diverse state, I believe that the needs of our state – and the needs of our candidates who wish to represent us in Washington – require a structured policy of openness in which all the people can get all the facts about where candidates stand on the issues that matter most to us,” Griffo wrote in a letter to the governor.

Griffo wants Paterson to schedule town-hall style meetings in upstate and downstate communities, and “to make his selection from among those candidates who attend.”

Griffo said Utica should host a town-hall session. The city has been particularly angered after Rep. Gary Ackerman last week said he’s not interested in the seat because “I don’t do Utica.”

Ackerman is now headed to Utica Monday to clear the air.

“Recently, this city has been battered by comments from a downstate representative demeaning the noting of “doing Utica,” Griffo said. “We need to show the people that our next senator will ‘do Utica,’ and Watertown, and Binghamton, and other areas where our senator needs to do more than drive through to understand the complex web of issues that need attention.”

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco said he was the victim of a check-cashing scam, in which someone called a business pretending to be him and asking for to cash a check for $185 claiming that a friend’s car had broken down.

The same person also asked the business owner in Schenectady to cash another check for $200. Tedisco said he was targeted by thieves several year ago.

The Schenectady Police Department said they are investigating and that “currently no solicitation effort being conducted by Assemblyman Tedisco or any such effort authorized by his office.”

Tedisco warned the public to watch for scams.

“This is the second time that an ID thief has attempted to misuse my name and steal my identity for financial gain. I don’t want any person or small business to ever fall prey to such an unscrupulous scam,” Tedisco stated.

“ID theft can happen to anyone. That’s why it is so important people are vigilant and on the lookout for ID thieves who would try and steal your Social Security, credit card, PIN number, bank account information, lines of credit, or even your good name and reputation.”

The average family of four in New York would have to dish out $3,875 a year in new taxes and fees if Gov. David Paterson’s budget proposal is approved, a review Thursday by Assembly Republicans shows.

From $73 a year on deposits on water and juice bottles to a $720 increase in state college tuition and fees, the average family would be further pinched by the governor’s proposal, said Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady.

“All these tax-and-fee hikes are like declaring war on New York’s middle-class families,” Tedisco said.

Paterson has come under heavy criticism for proposing 137 new taxes and fees and revenue raisers to help close a $15.4 budget deficit in the 2009-10 fiscal year, which starts April 1.

The state Labor Department announced Thursday that New York last month had the largest decline in private-sector jobs in more than seven years and the unemployment rate climbed to 6.1 percent, the highest since April 2004.

The Democratic governor, who is legally blind, said Thursday “even I can see what’s wrong with this budget.” He said he tried to spread the pain as evenly as possible. He said Tedisco and other leaders have not offered alternatives.

“It is draconian,” he said of the budget. “It is exactly what people describe it. But as governor, I had a constitutional purpose. I had to deliver a plan that reduces the budget deficit by April 1.”

The Republicans’ review is based on the average, after-tax income of $45,343 for a family of four in New York. It estimates how many movies, music downloads, beer and clothes a typical family would purchase – all of which would face higher taxes under Paterson’s plan.

You can see the Republicans’ estimates here.

The Clinton Foundation this morning released a lengthy list of contributors since its inception in 1997, and in the top 10 is Rochester-area billionaire Tom Golisano, who gave between $10 million and $25 million to the organization.

The list gives ranges of contributions, so it’s unknown specifically how much the Paychex Inc. founder has given, but he has been doling out money to the Clinton Global Initiative since its inception in 2005. He appeared ninth on the list.

Other top individual contributors include real estate heir Stephen Bing, Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner, Frank Giustra, CEO of the The Radcliffe Foundation, and Theodore W. Waitt, co-founder of Gateway. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was also high on the list, ranked fourth.

The Associated Press says that Clinton’s foundation has raised at least $41 million from Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments that Hillary Rodham Clinton may end up negotiating with as the next secretary of state.

Those include Saudi Arabia, Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica.

Overall, there are 205,000 donors listed, with nearly 90 percent being at $250 or below, the foundation said.

Golisano and President Clinton have developed a good relationship after Golisano started helping the foundation. Clinton toured Rochester and Buffalo in 2005 with Golisano and took in a Buffalo Sabres game, a team Golisano owns.

And Clinton came back to Buffalo last week for a Sabres game.

They were also together, above, at RIT when Clinton was the keynote speaker there last year.

In quick stops to upstate cities, Caroline Kennedy made her first public statements today about her plans to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but offered few details on what she would do in office.

The daughter of late President John F. Kennedy visited privately with leaders in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo as she seeks to drum up support for her Senate bid.

In Syracuse, she read from a prepared statement, saying “I’ve told Gov. (David) Paterson that I’d be honored to be considered for the position.”

Later in Rochester, she offered more of an explanation on why she feels qualified to serve in the Senate.

“I have had a lifelong commitment to public service,” she said. “I’ve written books on the constitution and the importance of individual participation. I think I really could help bring change to Washington.”

The 51-year-old Manhattan resident admitted that “it’s my first time in Rochester, but I’ll be back as many times as Chuck Schumer,” a joke about the omnipresent senior New York senator.

Kennedy held to a carefully crafted script and was whisked away by aides after briefly addressing the media. Her trip was not made public by her staff, and she gave only brief notice to leaders that she was coming to town.

The visits drew criticism from some political leaders and observers, who said Kennedy needs to do more than just show up to win public support – especially in upstate New York where the economy needs revitalization.

“There’s no evidence that she’s qualified. The fact is she has a well-known name,” Rep. Peter King, R-Nassau County, who is planning to run for the seat in 2010, said on CNN Wednesday afternoon.

The Democratic governor will select Clinton’s successor after she is confirmed as secretary of state to President-elect Barack Obama, likely next month.

Winning support upstate is seen as critical for Kennedy, who would have to seek election in 2010, the same year Paterson will be seeking re-election.

Kennedy drew praise from the leaders she met Wednesday.

“I don’t think she has to explain her background,” said Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy. “She was not campaigning with me. She asked questions. She was interested in the region, the area, the issues.”

Kennedy has been slowly building support from leaders, including from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, Monroe County, who attended the meeting in Rochester.

Some Democratic officials said privately this week that Paterson will be hard pressed not to pick Kennedy as her support grows. Some officials said the only other person that could compete with Kennedy’s stature is state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has not publicly said whether he is interested in the job.

New York, along with nine other Northeast states, today conducted an auction of credits to allow power plants to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The goal is to gradually reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by limiting how much power plants can discharge into the atmosphere over time. No results of the auction, where 12.4 million tons of credits were for sale, were available today, but officials hoped to raise as much as $40 million for energy-conservation programs. Energy producers have complained that the cost of the credits is merely an add-on to the state’s already high energy costs (an average of 15.35 cents per kilowatt hour last year, 68 percent above the national norm) but state officials said today they see it as a way to eventually reduce emissions and slow global warming by giving the producers an incentive to emit less of the gas. New York and its neighbors decided to band together to try to cut carbon-dioxide emissions after the federal government failed to act.

The 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) today launched a statewide TV ad seeking a “Fair Share Tax Reform” to increase taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year.

The groups said the tax “would help ease New York’s budget deficit and reduce enormous proposed health care budget cuts that would devastate hospitals, nursing homes, and home care providers.”

Governor Paterson has resisted calls to increase income taxes, saying it would put the state in further economic decline and lead more people to leave the state.

Instead, though, he’s proposing 88 new fees and fines.

“New York State is facing one of the most daunting economic challenges of modern times, and there is no better time for the State’s wealthiest residents to lead by example and pay just a little bit more,” said GNYHA president Kenneth E. Raske.

The groups have also launched a new Web site here.