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Gov. Kathy Hochul reportedly authorized payment of nearly $2 million in taxpayer money for outside ghostwriters to help draft her State of the State speeches. Most of the money was paid to Deloitte Consulting and the Boston Consulting Group to help the state’s first female governor shape her vision, according to the New York Times. Hochul’s office shelled out $871,000 on three outside firms to help prepare this year’s speech – with Boston Consulting Group racking up the largest amount of $838,000 for what it listed in records as “SOS support.” Representatives for three of Hochul’s predecessors — fellow Democrats...

--SNIP-- COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter are helping rational people realize LeBron, Alyssa Milano, Lena Dunham, Steve Kerr, Amy Schumer, Colin Kaepernick, Aaron Paul, CardiB, Meek Mill and Jimmy Kimmel all need to shut up and entertain. They’re not thought leaders. They’re court jesters pretending to be world leaders. Let’s defund them. Seriously. I don’t want to eliminate them. I like to be entertained. I just think it’s a huge mistake to pretend CardiB is important. She’s a stripper-turned-rap music-pornographer. She’s Hugh Hefner, not Michelle Obama with a boobjob. Let’s give entertainers a special designation in our tax codes. Tax...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Environmental groups and energy companies both claimed victory after Gov. David Paterson ordered a seven-month moratorium on some natural gas drilling in the state, although environmentalists would have preferred the broader ban that the Legislature had approved. The outgoing Democratic governor vetoed a bill on Saturday that would have suspended all new natural-gas drilling permits until May 15. Instead, he issued an executive order prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled wells, such as those in the Marcellus Shale region of southern New York. The order stands until July 1...

ALBANY, N.Y. (Associated Press) -- An unfolding scandal threatening Gov. David Paterson and his administration claimed its second public safety official Tuesday when the head of the New York State Police casually told a television reporter that he was retiring, partly because of intense media scrutiny. Superintendent Harry Corbitt had acknowledged in February that a State Police official had contact with a woman who had accused a top Paterson aide of assaulting her on Halloween in New York City's Bronx borough. Soon after, the woman dropped the domestic violence complaint against the aide, David Johnson.

Of all the names floated around out there, Suozzi is the least radically left. Of course, I'd like Paterson to pick someone like John Faso, but I know that's not going to happen. When Tom Suozzi ran against Eliott Spitzer in the gubernatorial primaries, cutting property taxes was high on his list, Suozzzi opposed gay marriage, and backed a ban on late-term abortion.

Elitism: Is Democratic New York Gov. David Paterson his own man? If he is, he'll appoint an accomplished leader as senator. If he isn't, he'll kowtow to the party bosses and pick . . . a Kennedy.When the Empire State's legally-blind governor made a huge stink this week about an NBC "Saturday Night Live" skit that lampooned him, was he just conniving to convince New Yorkers how independent and determined he is — prior to caving in on Caroline Kennedy? In the days since Gov. Paterson was depicted by comic Fred Armisen as confused and disoriented, holding charts upside down...

The junior senator has the support of Republican colleagues Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz on a measure to overhaul how the military handles sexual assault allegations. Her work has garnered praise from GOP members as a Democrat they’d like to work with and is helping her own set of issues in Washington.,/i> WASHINGTON — It was a head-turning sight on Capitol Hill. There was Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, standing with firebrand Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to showcase their support of her measure to overhaul how the military handles sexual assault allegations....

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants answers from the US taxpayer supported Export-Import bank about a $2 billion loan to Brazil for offshore drilling. Vitter’s home state is suffering under a moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama. Vitter said Louisianians “are frustrated” and he wants to know “why permitting domestically is nearly stalled…” Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had questions about ExIM—nine years ago when he asked Congress to reject the reauthorization of ExIm for “economic, constitutional and moral reasons.” Vitter sent a letter to Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im president, on March 17. Vitter asked Hochberg to identify all US companies that have...

ALBANY — Aides to New York’s first African-American governor wanted a police entourage that looked more like their boss, so they made an unusual request to the State Police: Replace at least 10 white troopers assigned to protect Gov. David A. Paterson with black or Latino officers. The request prompted an extraordinary battle between the Paterson administration and leaders of the State Police shortly after Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, took office in 2008, according to court testimony, e-mails and interviews. Preston L. Felton, at the time the acting superintendent of the State Police and the first African-American to lead the...

Democrat personality David Paterson, former governor of New York and now a talk-radio host on WOR in New York City, has suggested Barack Obama could be ineligible for the Oval Office and “got away” with it. And Paterson linked Obama’s actions to treason. On his show yesterday, he was asserting, along with NBC Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney should have distanced himself more from developer Donald Trump and his doubts about Obama’s eligibility. “Even if he wasn’t born in the United States at this point,” Paterson said. “It’s kind of like he got...

Gov. David A. Paterson of New York on Saturday vetoed legislation intended to curtail natural gas development using the technique called hydraulic fracturing until a closer review of its effects can be undertaken. Instead, the governor issued an executive order instituting a moratorium that extends until July 1, 2011 — beyond the date specified in the legislation — and that more narrowly defines the types of drilling to be restricted. “This legislation, which was well intentioned, would have a serious impact on our state if signed into law,” Mr. Paterson said in a prepared statement. “Enacting this legislation would put...

New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, is conceding that Republicans "probably" have won control of the New York state Senate, which GOP leaders say has important implications for the long-term balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. No official winner has been named in three senate races in the Empire State. Republicans lead in two of those outstanding contests. New York Republicans, including the current minority leader, Sen. Dean G. Skelos, have said they expect to take over the Legislative gavel in the next session. According to a Friday report in the New York Post, Paterson told...

Chaos and anarchy. That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is warning if he's forced to shut down the government in a few days. The clowns in the state Legislature, now deadlocked for 71 days on the budget, are ready to take down the "big tent" and bring state government to a standstill. At least that's what Paterson thinks. "No one knows the full ramifications of a government shutdown," said Paterson. "It would create unimaginable chaos around the state and the greater metropolitan areas." Such chaos includes closing all state parks, motor vehicles offices, courts, and even the lottery. Public...

Gov. David Paterson's press secretary is resigning, making her the fourth top staffer to resign amid scandals that threaten the administration. Press Secretary Marissa Shorenstein says she is quitting because her reported role in one of the scandals makes her unable to do her job effectively... Paterson's communications director, deputy public safety secretary and state police superintendent have also resigned.

New York Governor David Paterson attempted to suppress an investigation into an aide’s alleged beating of said aide’s girlfriend, and lied to an ethics panel about the free tickets he scored to the World Series. In this, he follows Eliot Spitzer, whom he succeeded after Spitzer attempted to convince a banker to contravene federal banking laws (that is actually why he had to resign, not because he hired a prostitute, but since prosecutors decided for unclear reasons not to indict him, that part is forgotten). Paterson, in his sure-to-fail attempt to hold on to power for a few more months,...

Patrick Gaspard, considered one of the most powerful figures in the Obama White House, is a "longtime ACORN operative" and former union official, according to a report posted Monday on the American Spectator's online blog. Gaspard's name recently surfaced as the official President Obama dispatched to urge beleaguered New York Gov. David Paterson not to run for another term. Paterson insists he'll continue to run for governor even without Obama's support. Gaspard has extensive ties to organized labor and community-organizing groups. One measure of his influence in the White House: He holds the same "political affairs director" title that belonged...

Today's Marist poll finds 62 percent of New Yorkers think it was wrong for President Obama to stick his nose into local politics and pressure Gov. David Paterson not to run in 2010.

News that Gov. Paterson’s plan to have Richard Ravitch as his lieutenant governor was torpedoed by the court was quickly overshadowed by reports that he was embroiled in a yet another controversy. Appearing on New York Daily News’ reporter Errol Louis radio show on WWRL-AM last week, Paterson let his interviewer know that he wasn’t pleased that Dominic Carter, host of “Road to City Hall”on NY1, had chosen to discuss with the Rev. Al Sharpton his alleged late night outing. After refuting the rumor, Paterson tore into Carter, suggesting that such reportage was an example of the negative media coverage...

By FREDRIC U. DICKER, STATE EDITOR ALBANY -- Gov. Paterson gets more grim political news today, as another statewide poll shows Attorney General Andrew Cuomo trouncing him by 4 to 1 in a hypothetical primary match next year. Democrats, by nearly 2 to 1, said that New York's accidental governor doesn't deserve to be elected on his own...

David Paterson , the accidental governor of New York State, is making it easier and easier for the Republicans to win back the governorship in 2010. At first he drew high approval numbers for the way he stepped into the state's highest office after Elliot Spitzer, his predecessor and fellow Democrat, resigned from office over issues related to his dalliance in a Washington, D.C., hotel room with a paid escort. And people took his side when NBC's Saturday Night Live, sometimes the arbiter of the nation's political humor, poked fun at his being legally blind in a sketch that was...