Kennedy Shadow Looms Over Senate Hopefuls UTICA, N.Y. — It is not easy competing with a Kennedy. This axiom of American politics has been true for more than half a century. But nowhere is it more obvious than in New York nowadays, where United States Representatives Steve Israel and Carolyn B. Maloney, who both aspire to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, have followed the lead of Caroline Kennedy and crisscrossed the state in a campaign-style dash through city halls, train stations and offices of local party leaders.They have variously invited reporters to lunch, cheerfully passed around cream-filled pastries and publicized every stop on their schedules, but still attracted scant attention compared with the heiress to America’s most storied political dynasty.They have variously invited reporters to lunch, cheerfully passed around cream-filled pastries and publicized every stop on their schedules, but still attracted scant attention compared with the heiress to America’s most storied political dynasty.Mr. Israel was greeted by four reporters Monday afternoon at the Mar-Logg Restaurant in Utica, where patrons barely seemed to notice as he held court in the rear of the diner. He said the low-key reaction did not trouble him.“Look, she’s Caroline Kennedy,” said the congressman, after sitting down to lunch with a group that included Utica’s mayor, David R. Roefaro; and State Assemblywoman RoAnn M. Destito. “And it doesn’t bother me, dissuade me or affect me in the least.”Mr. Israel, who represents central Long Island, and Ms. Maloney, from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, have two decades of service in Congress between them and are unquestionably politicians in their own right. Yet they have spent the last several days traveling through the requisite campaign stops for statewide office in New York: Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.