Free Republic

ALBANY -- In yet another blow to his teetering administration, Gov. David Paterson has lost his communications director. "As a former officer in the United States Navy, integrity and commitment to public service are values I take seriously," Peter Kauffmann said in a statement. "Unfortunately, as recent developments have come to light, I cannot in good conscience continue in my current position."Kauffmann was scheduled to testify today to investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office, which is conducting a fast-moving probe into allegations that the governor and the State Police contacted a Sherr-una Booker, a woman who had brought...

The grim faces said it all.Gathered the other day at a meeting convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York’s top minority political leaders held a mini-rally of sorts for beleaguered Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson — whose situation has gone from perilous to pathetic in just a few short days. In a sign of how far he has fallen, Paterson’s colleagues urged him to resist the loud calls for his resignation and hang in there until the end of his lame-duck — and distressingly lame — term.But the issue is so much bigger than Paterson now.Plain and simple, it...

The bad news continues for Gov. David Paterson -- he was just charged by the state's Commission on Public Integrity with violating the gift ban under the state's ethics laws for getting free tickets to game one of the 2009 World Series. He may face criminal charges in that case too. (...)

ALBANY -- A Republican assemblyman has called for the impeachment of Gov. David Paterson after a week of unfavorable reports about his involvement in a domestic violence incident alleged against a close staff member. Assemblyman Philip Boyle, R-Bay Shore, who is not known for bombast, said Tuesday impeachment of the governor is warranted to bring on a Senate trial that would either clear the governor and return him to power or find him guilty of improper interference in a criminal matter and cast him from Albany. Boyle, a 14-year Assembly veteran who has been an attorney since1988, was the lone...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - 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 said he was retiring, partly because of intense media scrutiny. And late Tuesday night, The New York Times reported that Paterson told a state employee in February to contact a woman at the heart of the scandal who had accused a Paterson aide of domestic violence to "make this go away." Soon after, the woman dropped her case against the aide.

ALBANY, N.Y. – The National Organization for Women on Tuesday urged New York Gov. David Paterson to resign because of a report he directed two staffers to contact a woman about a domestic violence case involving one of his top aides

NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- New York Gov. David Paterson declared Monday that he still has the authority to govern and plans to do so through the final year of his term, despite calls for his resignation amid a state police scandal. "I already have the authority," Paterson said in his first comments since Friday, when he suspended his campaign for a full term.

So maybe we should not be shocked that the head of the New York State Police sounded like a mob boss when he tried to explain why his troopers contacted a woman who had filed court papers saying she was assaulted by the governor's closest aide. "We just gave her options," Superintendent Harry Corbitt said. Corbitt might as well have said they gave Sherr-una Booker an offer she couldn't refuse. Here is how she translated her "options." "The state troopers kept calling me and harassing me to drop the charges and I wouldn't," she said in Bronx Family Court. *...

The crumbling of David Paterson's accidental governorship comes as no surprise to former top aides, who say Paterson loves the trappings of power, but not the work. The governor -- who announced Friday he would suspend his election campaign amid calls from Democratic leaders that he resign -- shows little interest in policy. He resorts to grilling press handlers about what to do about big budget and policy issues and has told his budget director to "just decide what to do." He is often unreachable for up to three days at a time. But Paterson cloaks his lightweight status in...

So David Paterson will not seek reelection; a few days ago, the New York Times revealed that Paterson meddled where he had no authority, calling a woman who had taken out a protective order against one of his longtime aides; some said the act came close to meeting the legal definition of attempting to intimidate a witness.

Gov. David A. Paterson ended his campaign for election on Friday amid crumbling support from his party and an uproar over his administration’s intervention in a domestic violence case involving a close aide.

If Gov. Paterson thinks his withdrawal yesterday from this year's gubernato rial race is a proper substitute for out right resignation, he'd do well to think again. As The Post reports today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is now exploring, among other things, just how the woman at the center of this sordid scandal last month suddenly acquired a spanking-new 2010 RX350 Lexus -- a $40,000 ride. And then, less than two weeks later, skipped a hearing in her domestic-abuse case against top Paterson aide David Johnson, ending the matter. Except, obviously, it didn't end.

New York Gov. David Paterson's decision Friday to drop his bid for election clears a major obstacle to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's longtime dream of claiming the seat once held by his father, Mario Cuomo. "Clearly, it puts him as the early odds-on favorite for a multitude of reasons—money, name recognition, popular standing, momentum," said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Mr. Cuomo, 52 years old, was unsuccessful when he sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002. That candidacy kindled resentment among some black leaders because he was challenging H. Carl McCall, a former...

NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Less than a week after declaring he would seek a full four-year term, New York Gov. David Paterson abruptly dropped his election bid Friday under pressure from fellow Democrats concerned about his faltering agenda and his handling of a domestic abuse case involving a trusted aide. Paterson cited a litany of distractions that prompted him to end his campaign, but said he had never abused his office.

Of all the Democrats who sighed with relief at the news that New York Gov. David Paterson won't run for a full term in office this year, perhaps none was louder than that of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. While his exit clears the Democratic primary field for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- saving him both money for the general election and a potentially bloody, intraparty battle -- Gillibrand is assured she won't be running her first Senate campaign with a politically anemic governor at the top of the ticket. Paterson was scheduled to announce his decision to leave the race this...

New York Gov. David Paterson will drop his bid for election to a full term and plans to make a statement later Friday morning, media reports said. The governor has faced intensifying pressure to abandon his campaign, as a senior aide quit his administration in outrage and the New York political world responded with disgust to allegations the state police and the Democratic governor interfered with a domestic-violence case involving a top aide. Mr. Paterson's administration was plunged into disarray late Wednesday after it was reported by the New York Times that the governor and a member of his security...

Embattled Gov. Paterson has pulled the plug on his bid to seek reelection, a source close to the governor said Friday. Paterson will announce the decision later Friday. Paterson has been under fire for having contacted a woman who accused one of his top aides of domestic violence. The source said the governor has agreed not to seek election, but he will not resign - opting to serve out the remainder of his term. The decision clears the way for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is the favorite of many Democrats, to seek the nomination unimpeded.

It's time for David Paterson to close out his role in one of the strangest epi sodes in New York history -- and turn over the affairs of state to his lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch. We don't prescribe this lightly. But new developments make it painfully clear that the accidental governor lacks the credibility to effectively see New York through its current crises. And that he has no hope of gaining it. The latest: Paterson and the State Police apparently tried to dissuade a woman from seeking an order of protection against a key gubernatorial aide, David Johnson.

The carefully orchestrated moves by Andrew Cuomo and the New York Times to rid our state of Governor David Paterson have reached a bogus crescendo as a result of a major "scandal" that has put most New Yorkers to sleep, but which has stimulated major Democratic Party leaders to seize the moment and demand that Paterson withdraw from his race for governor. The pile-on is outrageous, but typical of Cuomo who has a reputation for ruthlessness with no peer in this state. It's not enough for him to beat Paterson at the polls. He must bury him, politically, professionally and...

Despite calls from leading Democrats to step aside, Gov. David Paterson said Thursday he won't drop his election bid amid a growing scandal surrounding accusations of domestic violence against a key aide. The embattled governor said he will speak to key New York Democrats about his political future but for now he's continuing his campaign to be elected governor. Paterson rose to governor in 2008, when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal. Paterson also said he will cooperate fully with a state attorney general's investigation into contact his administration had with a woman who accused aide David...