If Paterson Has To Resign, Too
Ten days have passed since Governor Spitzer's resignation, and events seem to be running even further ahead than expected.
When David Paterson was sworn in as the 55th governor of New York State, he received an enthusiastic reception from a joint session of the legislature. His speech was considered a success, demonstrating awareness of the state's acute financial crisis but not describing specific reductions.
What we did not know was that a few hours later, the new governor and his wife would hold a press conference dealing with mutual marital infidelity for two years at the turn of the century. The pair answered questions from the press and said they had come to a difficult period in their marriage, stayed together for the sake of the children, and are now in love again.
Even before that, on the day Mr. Spitzer resigned and Mr. Paterson held an impromptu press conference, the new governor was asked by New York Sun reporter Jacob Gershman whether he had ever used the services of a prostitute. Mr. Paterson waited a moment and then replied, "Only the lobbyists." This witty rejoinder to a possibly impertinent question enhanced his reputation as a regular fellow.
Another woman came forth yesterday, with a shove by Fred Dicker, the Post's crusading state editor. Apparently Diane Dixon, who won an Olympic gold medal while on the United States track team in 1984 in Los Angeles, and Mr. Dicker exchanged e-mails last week. She told him she had taped conversations with Mr. Paterson. He recommended her for several positions in the Department of Education. She was supposed to have been hired for one of the jobs, but has not started work yet. Mr. Paterson said yesterday that "any conversation she said she recorded with me could be played in this room and it wouldn't be interesting." He added: "I know her, not that well."
He knew her well enough, however, to recommend her for a number of non-teaching positions on the outskirts of the Tweed empire. In the Post, Ms. Dixon described herself as a single parent, which was the first category of individuals that Mr. Paterson spoke about on Wednesday as requiring special assistance.
Even assuming that there was no close, personal relationship between the two, the issue arises of how far a high state official, or any public employee, should go in pressing an agency to hire someone they knew. One reason the DOE was taken away from the old, politically dominated seven-member board was to get rid of politics in the school system.
If people still are being hired on the basis of calls from the powerful, that goal has not yet been reached. Chancellor Klein should look into this, and let the public know what he discovers. It is difficult to conceive that Mr. Paterson is the only public official who calls the Department of Education to help someone find a job.
One consequence of Mr. Paterson's elevation is that the next in line to be governor is the temporary president of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, who has held that position since 1995, when newly-elected Governor Pataki and Senator D'Amato secured it for him.
Senator Bruno has repeatedly been described in the press as facing indictment for a variety of allegedly corrupt transactions, but so far he has escaped prosecution, and it is possible that he will never be charged.
If, however, Mr. Bruno became governor, and were subsequently forced to leave the office, whether for legal entanglements or for reasons of health — he was born in April 1929 — the next in line to be New York State's chief executive is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has held that position since 1994 with increasing authority. In 2000, Mr. Silver crushed a revolt, punished the plotters, and solidified his power.
The denouement of this series of untimely events could be the accession of Shelly Silver as the 57th governor of New York State. A strong governor might control a dysfunctional legislature.
A Silver regime may cure the paralysis which has affected state government through decades of split responsibility and partisan conflict. However, it raises the issue of whether the taxpayers and voters of the state of New York would be better off with a divided, enfeebled legislature and governor than with officials who could really injure the people by their devotion to the special interests, labor, and business, and their persistent lobbyists, who in fact constitute the permanent government of the Empire State.
Mr. Stern, president of New York Civic, was New York City's parks commissioner under Mayors Koch and Giuliani.
