New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has spent the last few years swatting away any suggestion she had her eye on the White House.

Now, a run for president appears all but certain.

Gillibrand has been hiring staff members, including a potential campaign director and communications director, and a trip to Iowa is in the works, another telltale sign. Just last weekend, newly-announced candidate Elizabeth Warren made the rounds in the state, which is home to the first-in-the-nation primary contest.

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Gillibrand's change of heart began almost immediately after Election Day.

"Well, I'm definitely thinking about it, of course," she said in an interview on CNN in mid-December.

Now, she seems to be just about done thinking. Gillibrand has reportedly signed a lease for a 5,000-square-foot space in downtown Troy, near her home in the town of Brunswick. The space could be home for her presidential campaign.

It was there in Brunswick, in a heavily Republican district, that Gillibrand was elected to Congress in 2006 as a conservative-leaning Democrat who championed gun rights. Her positions would later evolve after then-Governor David Paterson unexpectedly appointed her to a U.S. Senate seat.

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Since then, Gillibrand has won three elections by overwhelming margins, become a prodigious fundraiser, and moved into the progressive wing of the party — all positive indicators she could succeed in a Democratic presidential primary.

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