David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer, who resigned, and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and the first African-American governor of New York.
Following his graduation from Hofstra Law School, Paterson worked in the District Attorney's office of Queens County, New York, and on the staff of Manhattan borough president David Dinkins. In 1985, he was elected to the New York State Senate to a seat once held by his father, former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson. In 2003, he rose to the position of Senate minority leader. Paterson was selected to be the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election. Spitzer and Paterson were elected with 65% of the vote, and Paterson took office as lieutenant governor on January 1, 2007.
After Spitzer resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal, Paterson was sworn in as governor of New York state on March 17, 2008. Paterson held the office of governor during the Great Recession, and he implemented state budget cuts. He also made two significant appointments: In January 2009, he appointed then-U.S. representative Kirsten Gillibrand to a vacant U.S. Senate seat, and, in July 2009, he appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor. Paterson launched a campaign for a full term as governor in the 2010 New York gubernatorial election, but he announced on February 26, 2010, that he would bow out of the race. During the final year of his administration, Paterson faced allegations of soliciting improper gifts and making false statements; he was eventually fined in excess of $62,000 for accepting free New York Yankees tickets. He was not charged with perjury.
Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host and chairman of the New York Democratic Party from May 2014 to November 2015. In late 2020, he published his first book, entitled Black, Blind, & in Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity.
Early life and education
Paterson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Portia Hairston Paterson, a homemaker, and Basil Paterson, a labor law attorney. Basil Paterson was later a New York state senator for Harlem, secretary of state under Hugh Carey, and deputy mayor of New York City for Ed Koch. According to a New York Now interview, Paterson traces his roots on his mother's side of the family to pre–Civil War African American slaves in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. His paternal grandmother Evangeline Rondon Paterson, a Jamaican, was secretary to Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. His paternal grandfather was Leonard James Paterson, a native of Carriacou who arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917. It was reported by The Genetic Genealogist in March 2008 that Paterson had recently undergone genetic genealogy testing. Part of his father's ancestry consists of immigrants from England, Ireland, and Scotland, while his mother's side includes Eastern European Jewish ancestry, as well as ancestors from the Guinea-Bissau region of West Africa.At the age of three months, Paterson contracted an ear infection that spread to his optic nerve, leaving him sightless in his left eye and with severely limited vision in his right. Since New York City public schools would not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his family bought a home in the Long Island suburb of South Hempstead so that he could attend mainstream classes there. Paterson was the first student with a disability in the Hempstead public schools, graduating from Hempstead High School in 1971.
Paterson earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra Law School in 1983. After law school, he went to work for the Queens District Attorney's Office, but he did not pass the New York bar examination, which prevented him from becoming an attorney at law. He claimed that his failing the New York bar was partially the result of insufficient accommodation for his visual impairment, and has since advocated for changes in bar exam procedures.
New York State Senate (1985–2006)
On August 6, 1985, state senator Leon Bogues died, and Paterson obtained the Democratic party nomination for the seat. In mid-September, a meeting of 648 Democratic committee members on the first ballot gave Paterson 58% of the vote, giving him the party nomination. That October, Paterson won the virtually uncontested special State Senate election. At the time, the 29th Senate district covered the Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, Manhattan Valley, and the Upper West Side, the same district that Paterson's father had represented. He was re-elected ten times, and remained in the state senate until 2006, sitting in the 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th, 195th, and 196th New York State Legislatures.Paterson briefly ran in the Democratic primary for the office of New York City Public Advocate in 1993, but he was defeated by Mark Green.
Senate minority leader (2003–2006)
Paterson was elected Minority Leader by the Senate Democratic Conference on November 20, 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking black elected official in the history of New York. Paterson unseated the incumbent minority leader, Martin Connor. Paterson became known for his consensus-building style and sharp political skills.Describing Paterson's tenure in the Senate, The New York Times cited his "wit, flurries of reform proposals and unusual bursts of candor".
2006 gubernatorial election
In 2006, Paterson was selected by New York attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer as his running mate. The news stunned the New York political world, as the Democratic minority was poised to possibly take over the state legislature. Paterson traded the possibility of becoming Senate majority leader for the opportunity to hold the largely ceremonial lieutenant governor post. During their 2006 campaign, Paterson resolved a dispute with Spitzer over turf wars between staff members. The Spitzer–Paterson ticket won a landslide victory in the election, with 65.7% of the vote. It was the largest margin of victory in a gubernatorial race in New York history, and the second-largest for any statewide race in New York history.In late December 2006, shortly before being sworn in as lieutenant governor, Paterson said that, if he ever succeeded Spitzer as governor, he and Nelson A. Rockefeller would have something besides the governorship in common: great difficulty in reading. Rockefeller was dyslexic, and Paterson compared this to his own blindness.
Lieutenant Governor of New York (2007–2008)
Paterson took office as lieutenant governor on January 1, 2007.Stem-cell research
Paterson led Spitzer's successful 2007 legislative effort to approve a bond issue that will provide at least $1 billion toward stem-cell research. Spitzer and Paterson touted the measure partly for its economic development benefits, following California's $3 billion effort, which in turn had been prompted by the U.S. federal government halting funding for such research.Voting rights
In September 2007, Paterson weighed in on a proposal before the New York City Council to extend voting rights to noncitizens. He told a crowd gathered at the West Indian American Day Carnival Parade that he believed noncitizens should be granted voting rights. He stressed that he was asking for a change in policy, rather than a new law, citing that, although 22 states and territories between 1776 and 1920 allowed the practice, none do now. Spitzer issued a statement expressing that he did not agree with Paterson's position, and he said that he was unaware that Paterson would be speaking on the matter. Paterson had tried to introduce legislation granting voting rights to noncitizens as a State Senator fifteen years earlier.Racial discrimination lawsuit
In February 2008, a U.S. District Judge denied a motion to dismiss a racial-discrimination lawsuit naming Paterson. A white photographer claimed he was fired by Paterson due to his race. The lawsuit was settled in 2009 for $300,000.Governor of New York (2008–2010)
In the midst of a prostitution scandal, Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned his position effective March 17, 2008. Following Spitzer's resignation, Paterson was sworn in as the 55th governor of New York, at the New York State Capitol on March 17, 2008, by New York chief judge Judith Kaye.Paterson was the first black governor in the history of the state of New York and the fourth black governor in the history of the United States. The lieutenant governor's office remained vacant until September 22, 2009, when the New York Court of Appeals ruled in a 4–3 decision that Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch was constitutional.
Paterson is the second legally blind governor of a U.S. state. During his tenure, Paterson's staff read documents to him over voice mail.
On July 17, 2008, Paterson was the keynote speaker addressing the 99th annual convention of the NAACP in Cincinnati, Ohio.
On October 24, 2008, Paterson's top aide, Charles J. O'Byrne, resigned from his post following the revelation that he owed nearly $300,000 in back taxes. O'Byrne admitted to having failed to pay taxes for five years.
Although Paterson is a lifelong Democrat who was considered a liberal in the state Senate, he earned praise from some conservatives during his time as governor for making major spending cuts; for providing mandate relief; for enacting an inflation-indexed property tax cap and a school tax "circuit breaker"; and for his appointment of Blue Dog Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand to a vacant seat in the United States Senate.