The Times reports that there’s a growing backlash against Caroline Kennedy among New York Democrats.

Resistance is emerging among Democratic officials againstCaroline Kennedy as she pursues Hillary Rodham Clinton’s seat in theUnited States Senate, with Gov. David A. Paterson bristling over suggestions that her selection is inevitable, according to his advisers, and other leading Democrats concerned that she is too beholden to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Kennedy herself seems to have gone silent. She still hasn’t given an interview to the press, and yesterday the Times reported that she refused to answer questions about her finances that any typical senatorial candidate would have to answer.

Ms. Kennedy, who has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to appoint her to succeed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — and who helped oversee the vetting process for Mr. Obama’s possible running mates — is declining to provide a variety of basic data, including companies she has a stake in and whether she has ever been charged with a crime.

Ms. Kennedy declined on Monday to reply to those and other questions posed by The New York Times about any potential ethical, legal and financial entanglements….

The longer this goes on, I think, the more damaging it becomes to Kennedy, whose best chance was a quick appointment, rather than a drawn-out process in which her electoral weaknesses start to manifest themselves. One particular problem: She is closely associated with Mike Bloomberg at a time when basically the entire state thinks that Bloomberg is acting like an undemocratic jerk.