April
2008 Issue
Can newly sworn-in Governor David Paterson restore New York
state politics? He thinks so.
By Reynolds Graves & C. Todd Williamson,
III
On Friday, March 7, 2008, then-Governor Eliot Spitzer was standing
in New York City unveiling a new plan that would provide $5
million in grants to small business in Lower Manhattan. Meanwhile,
his bank recognized that for several months up to that point,
large payments over $4,000 were being transferred from Spitzer’s
account. Soon after, the IRS was contacted.
By Sunday night, Spitzer knew that he was going to have to
go into his office in Albany and inform his senior aides on
a private operation that he had been involved with for several
years. By Monday, The New York Times reported that the governor
was linked to a prostitution ring in which he was identified
as “Client No. 9” and spent up to $80,000 in a
6 year span on high priced call girls.
With the fallout that ensued, the media and the public already
had divided their attention into two halves. Half on the reoccurring
updates filled with details of the Spitzer scandal and the
other half on reports on who the New York Constitution states
would be his successor. As early as Tuesday, March 11th, major
and minor media outlets were beginning to focus on David Alexander
Patterson, 53, New York’s Lt. Governor.
 New York Governor David Paterson (www.ny.gov)
In his previous post as Lt. Governor, Paterson was making history.
Not only had he reached farther in politics than his father,
former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson, but as the
first disabled person to ever hold the post. With limited vision
in his right eye and none at all in his left, Paterson is legally
blind as he suffers from optic atrophy. As Governor he is the
first handicapped person to reside in the New York Governor’s
Mansion since former Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the
first African American.
As the torchbearer of a Harlem political dynasty, Governor
Paterson’s rise in New York state politics was almost
as quiet as his demeanor. He began his political career on
the staff of legendary New York Mayor David Dinkins in 1985
and soon ran the same year for a vacated state senate seat
at the age of 31.
He became the State Senate Minority leader in 2002 and spoke
at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston as a member of
the Democratic national Committee. By 2006, he was tapped to
be then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s running mate.
Now he has unexpectedly been placed in the hot seat. When he
assumed office on March 17th, everyone wanted to know more
about him than there was information available. Even Paterson’s
past political foes had nothing but praises for him, a far
cry from the animosity felt towards his predecessor on behalf
of his political foes.
"
David is extremely intelligent, charming and witty and enjoys
the goodwill of people in both parties," said state Sen.
Martin Connor, a Manhattan Democrat whom Paterson knocked off
as Senate minority leader in 2002. Conner told Keith B. Richburg
and Alec MacGillis of The Washington Post, "He ran against
me, and he beat me. But we remain friends. I've been helpful
to him, and he's been helpful to me. We enjoy each other's
company."
The same publication that broke the story that put Paterson
in office was now shedding light on the new guy. The New York
Times described Paterson as "widely considered smart,
amiable and disarmingly candid."
He may have been displaying these attributes only days after
assuming office. Paterson went an extra step by announcing
that he and his wife had had extra marital affairs in which
the governor described as “a rocky” point in his
marriage.
Days later, he was confessing to drug use during his early
20s. Many thought it a bad move, but others, including the
governor’s advisers agreed that it was good to get the
news out early before it could be used against him politically.
 Gov. Paterson’s swearing in
ceremony (www.ny.gov)
During his swearing-in ceremony, the new governor took time
to acknowledge VIP’s
in the crowd. Some of these notables included his former boss and former
New York mayor David Dinkins, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Charles Schumer, and
NY State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
His address was a message of optimistic bipartisanship and confidence in the
democracy within the New York state government.
“
Of course, I never expected to have the honor of serving as Governor of New York
State. But our constitution demands it. This transition today is an historic
message to the world that we live among the same values that we profess, and
that we are a government of laws and not individuals. Today we can be proud of
our democracy,” said Paterson.
Paterson was referring to Article IV Section 5 of the New York State Constitution
that outlines the executive offices of Governor and Lt. Governor that states: “[When
lieutenant-governor to act as governor]… “In case of the removal
of the governor from office or of his or her death or resignation, the lieutenant-governor
shall become governor for the remainder of the term.”
It is that same democracy in the state of New York that Paterson is in control
of today. Governor Paterson now has a bright vision for the state of New York: “a
New York where achievement is developed only from hard work, where doors are
always open and where anyone can achieve no matter where they live,” said
Paterson.
Throughout his remarks to a joint session of the New York State Legislature Paterson
spoke of an old New York and a new New York. New York’s budget issue was
a lingering holdover from the Spitzer administration.
When it came to the New York state budget, he promised to pass the new budget,
and to put New Yorkers back to work. Paterson also recognized the effects of
the Federal Reserve decreasing the interest rate a quarter of a percentage, and
the current state of a “reeling economy” and the toll that it is
taking on New Yorker’s, as well as Americans as a whole. “I believe
we can weather the storm”, said Paterson.
Gov. Paterson holding a budget meeting with Sen. Joseph Bruno (l)
New York City is without a doubt the most diverse city in the United States,
if not the world, and Paterson let everyone in attendance know that he plans
to feed off of that diversity to make the state of New York better than it already
is. “We as New Yorkers can achieve. We are Asian, White, Hispanic and Black.
We are upper-middle class, and social service customers. We are homeowners, landlords,
tenants, cooperators and even the homeless. We send our children to public and
private schools.” Paterson’s views were that of unification for the
great State of New York, and ideas that have rarely been expressed.
No words were more expressive of unity than when Paterson spoke of the opportunities
that all New Yorkers have for their future. Paterson encouraged New Yorkers to
look at who they are, what they are, and what they can achieve. Realizing that
the road is long, and the journey will be hard, Governor Paterson expressed that
the job cannot be done alone, but once the work is complete, all New Yorkers
will reap the benefits of a better New York State.
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