ALBANY - Gov. David Paterson is a smart guy, a politically savvy guy, a guy who can use humor like a rubber mallet to bend an opposing view his way.
Unfortunately, he's also a nice guy.
That can be a weakness with his colleagues in New York politics, who, whether he likes it or not, are adversaries in these tough fiscal times.
In a remarkable four weeks on the job, Paterson took the unheard of action of cutting $800 million from the state budget proposal he inherited from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. It was an unfathomable public act by Paterson in a town bankrolled by special interests.
The Legislature praised Paterson for his leadership, then promptly put back $500 million in spending.
On Friday, April 4, when the budget missed the April 1 deadline that Paterson called a moral and constitutional duty, he asked the Legislature to work the weekend. Legislative leaders agreed and praised Paterson's resolve, then adjourned in mid-afternoon. Most lawmakers left until Monday.
Now Paterson plans to cut the 2009-10 budget by 5 percent to 10 percent. And that's really cut it, not just control the rate of increase as is the usual ploy in Albany. The Legislature that conspired with previous governors to bloat it says, sure, we'd love to help.
That kind of help has given New Yorkers some of the highest tax bills in the nation.
Through it all, the Democratic governor from Harlem was smirked at by the tabloids, Comedy Central, YouTube, and David Letterman. They raked his personal life over coals for his remarkable admission on his first day in the new job over his past extramarital affairs. Soon after, he admitted some drug use while in his 20s.
It's been a rocky start. A Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found fewer New Yorkers - 62 percent - think Paterson will be able to govern effectively, down from 75 percent when he took office. He's been on the job all of five weeks.
Yet from admitting personal failings to telling lobbyists and the Legislature to trim their appetites for tax dollars, Paterson has done what most pundits have always advised. They used to say that if only Nixon and Clinton admitted their mistakes upfront, if only Pataki and Spitzer really stood up to Albany's pay-for-play culture for the long haul, all would be right with the world.
Most New Yorkers seem to still believe that. The Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found 69 percent of New Yorkers say he was right to admit his past affairs and cocaine use and 84 percent say reporters should stop pressing him for more details.
Yet there was talk last week that Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should run for governor in 2010, when Spitzer's unexpired term ends. Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who briefly ran for the Democratic nod for governor in 2002, is also being watched even closer now. Spitzer's sudden exit likely accelerated Cuomo's plan to run for the executive chamber his father once held.
It's all fueled more by Thursday's Quinnipiac poll that also put New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his predecessor and erstwhile presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, ahead of Paterson in the 2010 governor's race. And those guys say they won't run.
And all them love to play hardball.
So, why the lack of respect for the guy holding most powerful political job in New York?
No fear.
Despite current speculation, there has always been serious doubt that Paterson would run for a full term. Part of it is that he never said he wanted to be governor before he, as lieutenant governor, was thrust into the office when Spitzer resigned last month after being implicated in a prostitution ring.
Leadership, of course, doesn't have to include fear. But in Albany, fear might just be the key: Pataki used a shocking 1994 win to force true cuts in the budget, the death penalty, and tax cuts; Spitzer led the busiest two months of reform in Albany history in 2007, surpassing most governors' full terms when he forced at least some improvement in budgeting, ethics, worker's compensation insurance and other areas.
Spitzer was popular, dauntingly so, but never cuddly to Albany's denizens. It was his once record-high approval ratings as well as a willingness to attack his foes in their home TV markets that got most things done.
As for Pataki, the Republican had slain not just an incumbent, but a national Democratic icon in Mario Cuomo, and used a staff with a nasty streak to remind everyone of the fact.
Yet every legislator has a good word to say about Paterson, how funny he is, how easy it is work with him, how he is so not-Spitzer.
But the legally blind Paterson had to be tough to thrive in regular classrooms in public schools, in college and law school, in running the New York City marathon, in talking trash on the basketball court, and in eroding the historic Republican majority in the Senate when he was Senate minority leader.
But is he tough enough for this job? No one around here seems to be shaking.
Yet.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., Capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-04-17-08 1453EDT
That can be a weakness with his colleagues in New York politics, who, whether he likes it or not, are adversaries in these tough fiscal times.
In a remarkable four weeks on the job, Paterson took the unheard of action of cutting $800 million from the state budget proposal he inherited from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. It was an unfathomable public act by Paterson in a town bankrolled by special interests.
The Legislature praised Paterson for his leadership, then promptly put back $500 million in spending.
On Friday, April 4, when the budget missed the April 1 deadline that Paterson called a moral and constitutional duty, he asked the Legislature to work the weekend. Legislative leaders agreed and praised Paterson's resolve, then adjourned in mid-afternoon. Most lawmakers left until Monday.
Now Paterson plans to cut the 2009-10 budget by 5 percent to 10 percent. And that's really cut it, not just control the rate of increase as is the usual ploy in Albany. The Legislature that conspired with previous governors to bloat it says, sure, we'd love to help.
That kind of help has given New Yorkers some of the highest tax bills in the nation.
Through it all, the Democratic governor from Harlem was smirked at by the tabloids, Comedy Central, YouTube, and David Letterman. They raked his personal life over coals for his remarkable admission on his first day in the new job over his past extramarital affairs. Soon after, he admitted some drug use while in his 20s.
It's been a rocky start. A Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found fewer New Yorkers - 62 percent - think Paterson will be able to govern effectively, down from 75 percent when he took office. He's been on the job all of five weeks.
Yet from admitting personal failings to telling lobbyists and the Legislature to trim their appetites for tax dollars, Paterson has done what most pundits have always advised. They used to say that if only Nixon and Clinton admitted their mistakes upfront, if only Pataki and Spitzer really stood up to Albany's pay-for-play culture for the long haul, all would be right with the world.
Most New Yorkers seem to still believe that. The Quinnipiac University Poll on Thursday found 69 percent of New Yorkers say he was right to admit his past affairs and cocaine use and 84 percent say reporters should stop pressing him for more details.
Yet there was talk last week that Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should run for governor in 2010, when Spitzer's unexpired term ends. Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who briefly ran for the Democratic nod for governor in 2002, is also being watched even closer now. Spitzer's sudden exit likely accelerated Cuomo's plan to run for the executive chamber his father once held.
It's all fueled more by Thursday's Quinnipiac poll that also put New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his predecessor and erstwhile presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, ahead of Paterson in the 2010 governor's race. And those guys say they won't run.
And all them love to play hardball.
So, why the lack of respect for the guy holding most powerful political job in New York?
No fear.
Despite current speculation, there has always been serious doubt that Paterson would run for a full term. Part of it is that he never said he wanted to be governor before he, as lieutenant governor, was thrust into the office when Spitzer resigned last month after being implicated in a prostitution ring.
Leadership, of course, doesn't have to include fear. But in Albany, fear might just be the key: Pataki used a shocking 1994 win to force true cuts in the budget, the death penalty, and tax cuts; Spitzer led the busiest two months of reform in Albany history in 2007, surpassing most governors' full terms when he forced at least some improvement in budgeting, ethics, worker's compensation insurance and other areas.
Spitzer was popular, dauntingly so, but never cuddly to Albany's denizens. It was his once record-high approval ratings as well as a willingness to attack his foes in their home TV markets that got most things done.
As for Pataki, the Republican had slain not just an incumbent, but a national Democratic icon in Mario Cuomo, and used a staff with a nasty streak to remind everyone of the fact.
Yet every legislator has a good word to say about Paterson, how funny he is, how easy it is work with him, how he is so not-Spitzer.
But the legally blind Paterson had to be tough to thrive in regular classrooms in public schools, in college and law school, in running the New York City marathon, in talking trash on the basketball court, and in eroding the historic Republican majority in the Senate when he was Senate minority leader.
But is he tough enough for this job? No one around here seems to be shaking.
Yet.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., Capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-04-17-08 1453EDT
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