Rural as "other" in the context of New York

This is evinced in again in coverage of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Here is a quote from Nicholas Confessore's story in today's NYT.

Ms. Gillibrand, who was twice elected to Congress from a mostly white and rural district stretching from Hudson to the Adirondacks, still faces significant obstacles as she seeks to be elected in her own right.

She is not well known downstate, where Democratic primaries are lost and won. In a recent Marist College poll, only 18 percent of Democrats rated Ms. Gillibrand as doing an excellent or good job, while more than half were unsure.

I continue to find interesting the paper's focus on Gillibrand's rurality (see earlier posts here and here), when in fact many of her biographical details reflect very urban experiences, e. g., law degree from UCLA and work for large law firms in NYC. At least this story uses the rural modifer for her former district rather than in direct reference to her. Still, the rural-urban contrast In NY is clear, with "rural" definitely the outlier.