Some big story about New York State governor David Patterson is supposed to break early this week, and the governor is supposed to resign (EDIT: e.g. TalkingPointsMemo) Monday or Tuesday. This is all over the place, but I have it from a pretty reasonable source. Supposedly, it involves extramarital sex, but that’s not the bad part, the bad part, according to my source, revolves around gambling and the repayment of gambling debts.
Update. I’ll just repeat exactly what my source told me. He says that Paterson ran up a big gambling debt to some people (possibly connected with this) who retired the debt in return for getting a big state contract.
I don’t know if that’s correct or not but it would be very typical New York State politics and the same general flavor as what Joe Bruno (the legendary longtime Republican Senate majority leader) went down for.
The sex angle might be fairly titillating (swinging, supposedly), but it’s minor compared to the gambling (EDIT: or more properly to the state contract, which really does stink, whatever the reason it was given) so it might not figure in as anything other than a footnote.
Update update. I don’t want to make any hard predictions here, politically. But I’m pretty sure that what my source says is, at least, what insiders are saying in Albany right now, FWIW.
Update update update. Just to be clear, everyone in NYS has been referring to rumors about Paterson and saying they’re likely to force him to resign. What I’m writing here seems to be the standard “insiders story” that is getting repeated. I don’t know if it’s true or not, for sure, obviously, but I thought people might be interested to know what it is that everyone is referring to, at least.
Final update. Paterson people say the gambling thing is bs, but everyone seems to think that something big is coming down the pipe. Maybe it’s just sex stuff, maybe it’s something more, maybe it’s nothing. We’ll see what happens.
beltane
Well, it’s one way to get him out of the primary.
C Nelson Reilly
Spitzer’s rehabilitated and ready to go back to work
Persia
This cannot be serious.
Martin
Geez, what a clusterfuck. Andrew Cuomo must be pissed. Everyone gets a free shot at being governor but him.
McGeorge Bundy
Oh my! Shocking.
Not.
DougJ
This may be good news for Cuomo, though. He was going to beat Paterson anyway, but now there’s no primary.
The scandal hurts Democrats, obviously, but it has a similar flavor to what Joe Bruno went down for, so it may not hurt that much.
Violet
The general idea of Patterson doing stupid and illegal things isn’t a surprise, but the particulars will be interesting.
mcc
So this is 2 governors in a row who could have stayed in office if they’d just had a NORMAL affair like EVERYONE ELSE
Bill Clinton and Mark Sanford turn out to be saavy masters of maintaining their public image!
WereBear
Whut?
Ah, well. I don’t think he had much of a shot anyway…
DougJ
@mcc:
The affair is small potatoes here. It’s the gambling debt (if my source is right).
Woodbuster
No shit? I’d trade him for Mark Sanford any day, indicted or not!
demkat620
Bye Dave.
Less money Cuomo and the Dems need on a primary.
Woodrowfan
yeah, but did he keep the bit about keeping “faithful” in his wedding vows? (unlike Sanford who had them left out)
mcc
@DougJ: Right, what I meant is if it had just been an affair it would have been fine.
Chat Noir
I’m constantly amazed the state of NY is able to function with all the dysfunction in Albany. I always thought Michigan’s legislature was a mess but it’s small potatoes compared to New York’s.
eemom
I thought the affair shit came out when he first succeeded to the governership, and that Mrs P did it too.
Whatevah. He was a goner anyway, and I’m sooooo glad to have a non-football thread.
Persia
So who takes over now? The Lt. Governor?
Nellcote
Who’s in line to become gov. if/when Patterson resigns?
Martin
@Persia: Yeah. The barely legally appointed Lt. Gov. of what, 8 months in office now?
mai naem
Just let Spitzer back in. At least he was competent.
rikyrah
KNEW it had to be more than just ‘sex’ to force him out.
chopper
yeah, i hate to say this, but i miss spitzer.
Jean
I’ll take Spitzer back.
Persia
@chopper: He’s one of the few people I enjoy for the right reasons on Slate.
Maude
@DougJ: Who takes over if he quits?
pika
I’m part of beleaguered SUNY, and there’s not much more the system can take from this kind of stuff. Sigh.
SiubhanDuinne
Couldn’t they let Harold Ford be governor for a while?
NeenerNeener
NY doesn’t have a Lt. Governor right now (at least not according to the state government web site), so I’m guessing either AG Cuomo or Comptroller DiNapoli is up next.
DougJ
@Maude:
Should be the new Lt. Gov. who he just got confirmed about a year ago.
TenguPhule
Can we just rename Albany as Hookerville and get it over with already?
valdivia
Can we haz Spitzer back nao?
and who the fuck becomes governor?
pika
Paterson got a court challenge through for Richard Ravitch, I believe, and thus we do have a Lt. Gov.
demo woman
TPM also says that Cohen has decided not to run for LtGov of Illinois.. Good news indeed..
Delia
Hmmm. . . I think Arnold Schwarzenegger will be available pretty soon. You could enjoy a whole new class of incompetence.
Osprey
I live in NY and work for the state and yes, the dysfunction in Albany is amazing. You’d be amazed at the number of ‘assistant’ positions (director’s assistant, commissioner’s assistant type of shit) that are randomly created and given out at 6 figure salaries. Yet we’re told we can’t hire any cheaper labor to do grunt work and get spending cuts every year.
Same thing with contracts. The state will happily hand out a contract that winds up costing 3 or many more times what it would cost to them to just hire somebody directly. At the same time, we have 0 (zilch, nada) quality control over how those contracts are carried out, yet we have to write our reports etc. based on their work, and are told to ‘polish a turd’ so to speak, even if the work is total shit (which is a good deal of the time).
Of course, what will be reported on non-fucking-stop is the marital infidelity (if this indeed is true). I never liked Paterson, and some of his ideas were outlandish. However, whatever we find out about this will probably be peanuts to what the legislature in Albany gets away with.
DougJ
@Osprey:
However, whatever we find out about this will probably be peanuts to what the legislature in Albany gets away with.
Yes, exactly.
Jon H
Isn’t he blind?
You’d think a blind governor would be safe from sex scandals.
Osprey
@Jon H: He’s legally
blondeblind, and it’s a little creepy if you look at his eyes, but he can see. The legally blind thing is for people who are seeing impaired to the point they can’t drive, among other things but driving #1 methinks.Ian
I am pissed the Cuomo hasn’t gotten into the primary yet. What else is he waiting for, god to come down and endorse him?
PurpleGirl
@Chat Noir: And NY’s legislature has been dysfunctional back to colonial times. There are references in the play 1776 to problems in the legislature. The NYS delegate is always abstaining (courteously) from votes because he hasn’t been told what to do by the legislature.
As to the state contract thing: The state did just award the new development contract for Aqueduct Raceway to include casino and lottery gaming. So maybe that part of the rumor isn’t so wrong.
DougJ
@PurpleGirl:
The state did just award the new development contract for Aqueduct Raceway to include casino and lottery gaming.
Yes, and there are a lot of complaints about it.
Sly
@Ian:
This is the New York Democratic Party. Who needs God when you’re the son of Mario Cuomo and married to RFK’s daughter?
Anyway, Cuomo was expected to enter the race in March. Not sure how Patterson’s (supposed) resignation will change that.
Snarky Pickles
Does this mean no more — well, only one more — skits with Fred Armisen as Governor Patterson?
Please?
Xenos
@Sly: I thought Cuomo was divorced. If so, he was smart to have the marital breakdown prior to becoming governor. Anything that indicates smartness is encouraging.
dmsilev
We need a law requiring the chemical castration of any politician taking office. They can get the antidote when they leave office.
Would solve a lot of problems.
-dms
Martin
@Ian: The Cuomo name give him a massive head start. He can enter the race at his discretion.
The suit against Lewis will help lay the narrative for him once he enters. If he did these things after entering the race it would look even more political than it already does. I’m guessing he’s got other things to finish before he actually enters.
wenchacha
I’d take Mario Cuomo or Spitzer at this point.
Why does NYS have to be so bad?
Snarky Pickles
Wenchacha, you can have Rick Perry, but you’ll have to pay shipping on the hair care products yourself.
Martin
@wenchacha: Better than Cali. Look at the bozos we get out here due to the overwhelming cost of running for office.
PurpleGirl
@DougJ: It seems to have taken forever for the contract to be decided and some pretty heavy hitters (Steve Winn) dropped out of the process. Given its history, I wouldn’t be surprised at anything involving the redevelopment of Aqueduct. I don’t follow state stuff as closely as I should but I do read the local freebie papers and they have articles and advertisements about the raceway and redevelopment.
PaulW
Somewhere in this world, Blago is smiling evilly.
On the bright side, this can’t possibly make New York politics any worse than it has been ever since 1776. I’m talking about the musical, of course… ;)
Brick Oven Bill
Seriously? A blind guy gambling? Talk about being stupid. It’s hard enough to beat the house with two good eyes.
Keithly
[email protected]
I’m a SUNYite as well. Tomorrow is SUNY advocacy day in Albany. I expect that SUNY will be ignored in favor of the trainwreck coverage.
Sigh
Yutsano
Cuomo vs Giuliani in a no-holds-barred deathmatch for the governorship. I’d be selling tickets to that like now!
Zephod
@mai naem:
Yeah and Spitzer didn’t use tax dollars for his peccadilloes.
ZZ
bob from new jersey
One more blow for us Democrats. New York state had already joined California and Massachusetts in joke status with their refusal to be inconvenienced by the trials of those who killed 3000 of their fellow citizens.
The Other Steve
Shouldn’t this post be titled “Is Paterson going to Resign?”, cause you are merely asking the question….
That’s what responsible journalists do. Just ask Breitbart.