At any moment David Paterson, the highly acclaimed Governor of New York who took office after the prostitution scandal of the last NY governor, Eliot Spitzer, and was widely hailed by President Obama and the Democratic National Committee as a future leader of the party, will resign in a sea of scandal, poor performance and idiotic judgment. It was an amazing fall from grace with personal affairs being revealed first and then an abuse of power which should force his resignation.
It seems Paterson found it necessary to dispatch state cops to silence a witness against one of his personal staff, a staffer who beat up a young lady. Then Paterson called her the day before she was to testify in the trial. She was scared to death and failed to show up at the hearing. That will be the last straw toward ending his career and he will stand alone as the second governor of New York to resign during the same four year term in a barrage of scandals. It is another dark day for the Obama Democrats.
David A. Paterson became New York's 55th Governor on March 17, 2008. In his first address as Governor, Paterson spoke about the challenges facing New York and his plans to build a better and brighter future for the citizens of this great state.
Governor Paterson was ahead of the national curve in predicting and acting on the State's current fiscal downturn. Despite the greatest economic crisis our State has ever faced, Governor Paterson has enacted sweeping reforms on a wide range of issues facing New Yorkers.
Governor Paterson led the movement to create permanent reforms to the way health care is delivered in New York State to rationalize the State's Medicaid reimbursement system and provide increased investment in primary and preventative care. He overhauled the Rockefeller Drug Laws for the first time in more than 30 years and after a 9-year struggle to update the 1982 law governing bottle deposits, Governor Paterson guided the legislature to enact the Bigger Better Bottle Bill. In addition, as a result of the Governor's leadership, the Empire Zone Program is being reformed, the basic welfare grant was increased for the first time in two decades to help assist those struggling in poverty during a time of unprecedented economic turmoil and unemployment insurance benefits have been extended.
Governor Paterson successfully negotiated an MTA bailout plan allowing commuters to avoid painful service reductions and he introduced landmark civil rights legislation that will end legal discrimination against same-sex couples in New York.
In 1985, at the age of 31, Governor Paterson was elected to represent Harlem in the New York State Senate, becoming the youngest Senator in Albany at the time. In 2003, he became the first non-white legislative leader in New York's history when he was elevated to Minority Leader of the Senate. He made history again in 2004 when he became the first visually impaired person to address the Democratic National Convention and again in 2007 when he became New York's first African- American Lieutenant Governor. As Lieutenant Governor, he led the charge on several crucial issues for New York's future including achieving legislation for stem cell research, working to prevent domestic violence, putting forth a statewide renewable energy strategy and championing the expansion of minority and women owned businesses in New York.
Governor Paterson, who is legally blind, is nationally recognized as a leading advocate for the visually and physically impaired. He is a member of the American Foundation for the Blind and he serves on the Board of the Achilles Track Club. He serves as a member of the Democratic National Committee and as a Chairman of the Coalition of Northeast Governors (CONEG).
Paterson was selected as running mate by then-New York Attorney General and Democratic Party nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Spitzer and Paterson were elected in November 2006 with 69 percent of the vote, and Paterson took office as Lieutenant Governor on January 1, 2007.
When Spitzer resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal, Paterson was sworn in as governor of New York on March 17, 2008. Paterson initially intended to run for a full term in the 2010 governor's race, but announced on February 26, 2010, that he would not be a candidate in the Democratic primary.
What a waste of a career. But then the White House had already undertaken a campaign to drive him from office by opposing his re-election.
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