N.y.s Paterson, Cuomo Face Risks In Abuse Probe, Analysts Say
Cuomo, 52, who has told supporters he intends to challenge Paterson, 55, for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year, also faces the risk of appearing to be politically motivated by investigating the case, pollsters and academics said. Cuomo is “proceeding to determine if criminal or other wrongdoing is involved,” his office said in a release.
“Bringing in Cuomo as a prosecutor might work as a gambit by Paterson to create an awkward situation for his chief rival, delaying his candidacy or raising questions as to whether he should even be a candidate while hes investigating Paterson,” said Lee Miringoff, poll director at the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York.
The developments may hamper the state governments ability to solve a growing gap in New Yorks more-than-$135 billion budget, analysts, lawmakers and Paterson himself said, partly because the governors sinking approval ratings reduce his power in dealing his power in dealing with the Legislature.
Liz Krueger, a Democratic state senator from Manhattan, called on Paterson to have Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch handle budget talks with the Legislature. He took his post in September after Paterson won a court-challenge against the appointment.
Budget Distraction
“The jobs hard enough,” Paterson said yesterday in an interview on WOR radio. “We dont want this to be a distraction. We still got — moving up on an $8.5 billion deficit to close, which gets forgotten when these types of subjects come up. But it is my responsibility to bring that budget home.”
A Feb. 24 New York Times report said state police officers and Paterson spoke with a former girlfriend of David Johnson, 37, whom the newspaper describes as one of the governors closest aides, after she accused Johnson of assault and sought a court-issued protective order against him. Paterson suspended Johnson without pay, the governor said in a Feb. 24 statement. The woman hasnt been identified. Johnson wasnt immediately reachable through the governors office.
Cuomo “must address at whose direction and with whose knowledge members of the governors security detail were acting when they contacted the victim, and whether or not any other government officials participated in or had knowledge of any effort to dissuade her from pressing charges or pursuing an order of protection,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat who has fought with the governor on issues including the budget.
Official Resigns
Denise ODonnell, Patersons deputy secretary for public safety, who supervises the state police, resigned yesterday, saying it was “unacceptable” that Paterson and members of the state police “acknowledged direct contact” with the woman who had sought protection from Johnson.
The events “create the image of a governor not in control of his staff,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political-science professor at Hunter College in Manhattan. “He has to demonstrate that hes not the victim of terrible rumors, buffeted by events, lurching from crisis to crisis.”
Election Campaign
The governors campaign spokesman, Richard Fife, didnt return calls. Calls to five donors who each gave more than $20,000 to the governors campaign also werent answered. Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who took office in March 2008 when Eliot Spitzer resigned, kicked off his campaign Feb. 20, saying he would put “the people first.” He said last night that he wont suspend his campaign, the Associated Press reported.
A Marist poll measured Patersons approval rating at 26 percent on Feb. 3, down five percentage points from last month. It was 17 percent on Sept. 24, the lowest for a New York governor in nearly three decades of polling, said Miringoff. Among Democrats, Cuomo would defeat Paterson, 70 percent to 23 percent if the primary were held Feb. 3, the poll said.
The survey, based on interviews with 838 voters Jan. 25-27, had an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and 5.5 percentage points among 360 Democrats.
Cuomo, who took over as the states chief prosecutor in 2007, has pursued probes that include targeting alleged abuses among student-loan companies.
Risks for Cuomo
He also faces risks, said Hank Sheinkopf, a Manhattan-based political consultant who worked on statewide campaigns include Spitzers victorious 1999 run for state attorney general and former state Comptroller H. Carl McCalls unsuccessful gubernatorial race in 2002.