If Eliot Spitzer should happen to resign as governor of New York, Lieutenant Governor David A. Paterson would become the next governor of the Empire State. Just who is David A. Paterson?, a lot of you may ask Although bobswern's diary yesterday shared a basic backgrounder on Paterson, I provide more information after the jump as well as some implications for the Democractic presidential campaign.
Paterson has been active in New York politics for many years, and comes from a prominent New York political family. His background and career is filled with many "firsts," as noted here, here and elsewhere.
Paterson is the son of Basil Paterson, who was the first non-white secretary of state of New York, the first African-American vice-chair of the national Democratic Party, the first African American NYC Deputy Mayor and the first African American to run for statewide office in New York. (I told you there were a lot of "firsts" in Paterson's background.) The New York Times notes that the elder Paterson helped build the Harlem Clubhouse, which has been a force in New York Democratic politics and has dominated Harlem politics since the 1960s.
David A. Paterson was born in Brooklyn in 1954, with no sight in his left eye and severely limited vision in his right eye. He has optic atrophy, which is is the loss of some or most of the fibers of the optic nerve. On the campaign trail, Paterson had recalled being "the first legally disabled person to attend public schools" in his district, as reported by the NY Times.
Paterson received a BA from Columbia University in 1977 and later his law degree from Hofstra Law School. After law school, he went to work for the Queens District Attorney's Office.
Paterson quickly followed in his father's poltical footsteps. As noted in Wikipedia, in 1985 Paterson won a highly competitive New York (Manhattan) County Democratic party Committee selection process to serve the rest of the term of longtime state Senator Leon Bogues, who had died. The following year, he won the seat for his first full term representing the 29th District in the New York State Senate (Harlem) - the same seat occupied by his father.
According to the Times, Paterson is "respected and popular" in the Democratic party, and is widely regarded as a smart political tactician who helped Democrats pick up seats in the New York State Senate in the 2002 elections.
In 2002, Paterson was elected minority leader of the New York Senate, making him the first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history. In 2004 in Boston, he became the first visually impaired person to address a Democratic National Convention. And in 2006 he made history again by being elected New York’s first African American lieutenant governor.
If Paterson were to succeed Spitzer, he would become New York's first African American governor, just the fourth African American governor in the history of the United States, and (according to CNBC) the first legally blind governor in the United States. It would also, of course, be the first time that this country had two sitting African American governors at the same time.
Despite all these positive firsts, if Paterson becomes governor of New York it will give the Republicans more power in the NY legislature, as explained in the Villiage Voice.
I'll end by noting that, like Spitzer, Paterson is on record as endorsing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. As described here, Paterson is already a DNC superdelegate as an at-large member. If he becomes governor and gives up his DNC position, the DNC would fill the vacancy with someone else (DNC members can be replaced up to the beginning of the convention), who most likely would also be a Hillary endorser (although I don't think that's a given). If Paterson were to hold his position with the DNC, the total number of superdelegates would drop by 1 and thus Hillary would likely lose 1 superdelegate.