Last month in this space, the suggestion was made that New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, should take out her Rand McNally map, some seven months after being appointed to Hillary Clinton’s senate seat, and get out of the big five media markets #— New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo — to see the rest of New York. On Friday, the senator made her first stop in Cayuga County, as part of a whirlwind upstate tour.

In about five hours, she traveled from Wayne County to the Women’s Rights Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, then stopped at Cayuga Community College for an economic roundtable discussion before shuttling off to a farm near Morrisville.

It was like “speed dating,” where one person sits at a table while possible new suitors rotate around looking for a long-term relationship. Unfortunately it is most likely just as effective — in essence, not at all.

Take the noon event at the college, where Gillibrand arrived almost 25 minutes late, raced around a table shaking hands with 20 invitees (likely not remembering their names as soon as they were said, moving on to the next person), gave a 10-minute introduction (largely about three handouts from her office for the participants to take away) and took questions for about 25 minutes. Her aide alerted those assembled at 1 p.m. sharp that the last question had been asked before two participants slipped in two extra questions. Then she was out of there (after the customary television interviews in the hallway — that seemed to be what really mattered) and off to Morrisville.

Whoa — elapsed time: roughly an hour if not less!

What may have been more disappointing is how ill-prepared she was for some of the topics that came up. For example, she still didn’t seem to grasp the whole issue, raised by leaders from both Cayuga and Seneca counties, about Native Americans and tax collection.

Just as odd — and this one you have to wonder if her staff is doing her any service at all #— was her seemingly to agree (as she did with almost all 12 speakers) with a trucking company executive who opposed the recent truck traffic rules that have been proposed by Gov. David Paterson (you know, the person who appointed her) and supported by the state’s senior senator, Charles Schumer.

That was likely a shock to all those who have worked for regulations from Skaneateles and Owasco to Aurora.

In the end, it looked as if the junior senator saw last week as a timed scavenger hunt in which she had only so much time to stop and visit, so that she could check the item off her list.

One can only hope that next time around, she might spend a little more quality time in these same counties she sped through.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com