Gov. Paterson expected to announce he won't seek full term

My prediction for Monday's Batavian poll: Will 76 year old Richard Ravitch be a good Governor for the next 10 months?

Thank god!

As there are never any quality gubernatorial candidates on either side, it looks like 4 more years of political winter.

Hillary, Hillary,
where for art thou Hillary?

Mark; it's like the President's job, anyone who is worth having, doesn't want the job.

Very true Dave. Would it be too much to ask for a non-polarized moderate?

I wish Guiliani would get in the race. He'd carry a lot of the NYC metro area and therefore would have a chance of winning. Lazio doesn't stand the proverbial snowball's chance.

Nice to see nothing has changed in Albany. If you want to be governor just trump up some charges and hold an investigation.

I will be voting for the snowball or anyone who's daddy wasn't govenor before.

Nothing trumped up here Charlie, all of the involved parties have admitted to wrongdoing. Also, the Governor requested that the AG's office investigate the current matter; it's not like there was a witch hunt going on.

Compared to the candidates we have to pick from, I wouldn't mind Mr. Spitzer back in office.

All the guy did was cheat on his wife and was caught. Putting Paterson in office has made us (as in the entirety of New York) suffer more than he has.

You don't really believe that the democrats haven't been looking for a way to toss the governor under the bus, do you? His poll numbers fell and he wouldn't play ball. The governor was setup by daddy's boy and took a fall.

What sort of mental gymnastics do you have to go through to come to the conclusion that this was the AG's fault?

Gov. Paterson used the State Police to pressure a young woman into dropping an assault charge against the Gov.'s aide. The Governor also made a personal phone call to the woman. The AG didn't make him do that, he got into trouble all by himself and now he's being held accountable for his won actions.

When a person engages in unethical or immoral behavior, the blame starts and stops with them.

If you're going to spend the next eight months attacking Andrew Cuomo, you better find something a little more substantial to blame him for. He's the AG and he is upholding the law just like his job description says he should. Calling him out for doing a good job is like calling the cops a bunch of jerks for arresting drug dealers.

Your right Chris, we all know how law abiding NY AG's have been in the past. I'm sure that wanting the man's job had nothing to do with this or all the mud slinging the governor has been hit with in the last few weeks. The machine had nothing to do with this at all.

The Governor could have avoided a scandal simply by not participating in one. I'll remind you again that Paterson requested that the AG's office investigate this matter.

Also, you don't get to paint our current AG with the same brush as the past ones. His term in office has nothing to do with theirs.

Try again Charlie, we get to do this for the next eight months so I hope you ate your Wheaties and brought your energy drinks. Maybe Rick Lazio will send you a bottle of Hydroxycut. If you're going to shill for him he may as well help keep your metabolism up.

Yep, All The Rats are starting to Jump Ship. They screw up everything, then they decide to retire, step down, not run again.. Nice Job you did ON Western Ny Gov. Boo-Bye!

Charlie,
Patterson should have known not to call the lady.

It was inappropriate and nobody made him do it.

He made a huge mistake and will have to pay for it.

And he is the one who called on the AG, not the other way around.

Phil, since you tend to be a supporter of government consolidation (in theory at least) I was wondering if you knew that the Bill recently passed by the NYS Legislature was actually drafted by AG Andrew Cuomo.

I know that some of our recent exchanges here have been contentious and I don't want you to think I'm throwing punches here; I just wanted to let you and many of the other fiscal conservatives who frequent this site to know that there may be quite a bit more to like about Cuomo than your initial reaction may lead you to believe.

Not many people know that the consolidation legislation came directly from the AG. He was also able to push it through both NYS houses in just about 3 months. Governor Paterson has never been able to get the assembly and senate to agree on a lunchtime, let alone meaningful legislation.

Ok Chris, you have managed to cast enough doubt on the current governor that we should come to terms with the idea that he is unfit to lead the state. What makes a Lazio chill like me believe that another Democrat governor would be the best thing for our state?
1. Spitzer turned out to be of questionable ethics and personally broke the laws he was sworn to uphold.
2. Patterson obviously abused his office and doesn’t deserve to run for another term.
3. After two Democrat governors, we are no better off. In fact, most would say the state is even in worse shape. They have both been completely incompetent and as you say “unable to even get the assembly and senate to agree on lunchtime.”

You don’t need to fight me for the next eight months. My guy has been disgraced and isn’t running again. Now, I am left questioning why State Democrats are unable to simply go to work for the people of our state without being investigated by the police?

Chris, Actually the City/Town received funding for our consolidation study because, Marianne Clattenburg, Jason and I went to Albany and sat in the governor’s office and asked them to help us. The governor and his people made sure we had our funding and the help we needed.

The governor has been very good for Batavia and his people ensured that our little city was not left out in the cold when it came to the funding we needed.

From my point of view Daddy’s boy had very little to do with any of it.

Sorry once again, but you can't paint the whole party as criminals because two guys who ran together turned out to have questionable morals. The Attorney General isn't Spitzer or Paterson, he's his own man and should be judged on his own merits (of which he has many in case you were wondering.)

Hell, maybe Lazio's a great guy. I'm sure he was busy doing the people's work while he was serving on the board of J.P. Morgan chase the last few years.

The guy you hate so much wrote the consolidation legislation you love so much Charlie. Paterson tried to get similar Legislation passed previously but was unable to do it. You can't deny the truth; well you can, but you'll look pretty silly doing it.

Phil I'm having trouble getting the State Senate Website to spit out the specific bill number, but if you google 'Cuomo consolidation' or New York Consolidation Bill' you'll find everything you need.

Chris, I don’t “hate” Cuomo. I have met him and he is a very nice person from what I can tell. He is very personable and comes off as a normal guy to me. I call him Daddy’s boy because; he achieved what he has on the back of his father. I didn’t care for Bush for the same reason.

In your haste to join your party elite in tossing our Democratic governor under the bus, you have aided Republicans in hurting the chances of Cuomo being elected. People have little patience when it comes to perceived inaction and corruption. This state has had good Republican governors in the past and could very well elect one again. This is especially possible when the party is not united.

'Inaction' 'corruption' and 'Cuomo' don't belong in the same sentence. The AG has beaten his own path and been successful while doing it. His initial opportunity in politics came from being his father's son, but over the last 30 years he has shown us what he's made of and I, for one, have been very impressed.

Hey, maybe your boss will move back to NYS and run again so you'll have someone to vote for.

For the record, nobody tossed the Governor under the bus, he dove headfirst. I'll keep reminding you of that every time you either say or infer that he was 'set-up.'

Wow, Chris, nice! I would rather my “boss” concentrate on running a profitable company and continue to somehow still be able to employ people in our state regardless of how difficult the last two Democrats who lead our state made it.

The fact is he is too good of a man to sit in the same room with the scum that rule our state. With that said if he did decide to run again, it would be a privilege to vote for him again.

For the record, Cuomo isn’t man enough to hold Tom’s jock. Go Sabers!!

Rudy Guiliani For Governor. Go Rudy!!!!! (:

Or, to be more specific, he didn't have any trouble associating himself with scum like Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada. Both of whom have enjoyed deep, deep probes into their own criminality by Attorney General Cuomo's office.

I don't remember the Democrats being in a hurry to get rid of those two clowns when they were on the right side of their majority?

I also don't remember hearing about any money being transfered. Are you sure you want to slander a good man or are you just disappointed about two other shameful state Democrats who lost their way?

Charlie,
Don't forget Bruno.

John, it’s not my job to defend Republicans. I could care less, there are no good guys. We would be far better off without political parties.

For the life of me I just don’t understand why Democrats turned on their own governor and I’m looking for an answer. You know as well as I do that they turned on this man months ago, this is just the end result.

Actually, I know the answer. I just want to hear a Democrat say it..

Charlie,
They turned on him when the general public started to think he was not up to the job.

First the budget collapse. He made a big deal of holding the line, then caved in.

Then the inaction when the senate was 50-50 for awhile. He kept calling them into session, but appeared to be weak. Maybe that was not his fault, but he just looked bad.

Then he made a few stupid statements in the news. Like blaming his problems on racism. Then Obama seemed to have come out against him. Don't know why, but it didn't help Patterson.

On top of all that, he never had any real support. He was given the Lt. Gov. spot to move him out of the senate when the Democrats knew they would take over. If they had thought he'd end up as governor, they would never have put him in that job. Everyone thought Spitzer would serve his first 4 years, and Patterson would be dropped from the ticket, into a nice retirement.

Then there was Cuomo. He saw a unelected Governor who seemed to do nothing right. Blood was in the water and he took advantage of it.

Charlie, in the interest of fairness, I deleted that portion of my comment. I can't prove that money changed hands or was promised. I can say that Mr. Golisano didn't seem to have any problems bellying up to the table with Espada and Monserrate. They were and are the scum of the Senate and now that Monserrate is gone I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of the Attorney General's labor pay off in the same way when it comes to Espada.

You said that Golisano 'is too good of a man to sit in the same room with the scum that rule our state.' Well, he handed the reigns over to those two after he involved himself in last summer's power struggle, care to explain that away? All of this, I might add, because he took issue with how Sheldon Silver treated him in a private meeting.

My beef with Paterson started around that time as well. I thought his leadership was weak to non-existent during that month when our state government was being held hostage by a convicted woman beater and an alleged thief whose strings were being pulled, according to every credible account, by Mr. Golisano himself.

Meanwhile, our Attorney General was left to sort out more than a few messes involving this three ring circus. He did a fine job of it too. He has provided strong leadership for the State of New York while others in high places were doing their level best to leave a void, he has stayed above the fray while other lawmakers were signing up for the circular firing squad, and as if by some miracle, he's actually managed to get some damn good work accomplished.

All of that is why Andrew Cuomo is my guy should he choose to run. He has a history of getting the job done while at the same time showing that he gives a damn about the real people who are affected by decisions made at the top. He has recently made a living and a name for himself by exposing and going after wasteful spending practices in our state government, which is something I think we can all agree needs to be adressed. Maybe the most important thing he's been doing lately, and the thing that not many folks seem to know about is this:

He's keeping an eye on Wall Street.

Take that in for a minute. How many of you have been here complaining about banks eating the TARP and ARRA money. How many of you are pissed off about how that money seemingly disappeared into the pockets of Wall Street brokers? Well the guy who's doing his level best to make sure Wall Street operations are above board is going to be your next Governor and that should make you feel good.

His opponent has spent his last few years out of politics and on the board of J.P. Morgan Chase.

Take that in for a minute. Now go puke on your shoes.

Who would you rather have in charge? The guy who's keeping an eye on the folks most of us have called 'crooks' once or twice over the last year, or a guy who spent that year working for the 'crooks'?

Chris,
Does Cuomo really care, or is he just taking a page out of Spitzer's book to get elected?

Go after Wall Street, or who ever, and get headlines. Not a bad game plan and of course, it worked once.

He did OK at HUD under Bill Clinton, but I don't think he did a really great job.

But, it looks like he'll be our next Governor, so let's hope for the best.

Thing is John, he's not getting headlines for it, he's just doing the work and that is commendable.

What was I thinking? Of course, Cuomo isn't an Albany politician, he cares about us. Thanks for setting me straight Chris. Where do I send my donation?

No problem Charlie, I'm sure he's got an ActBlue account :)

I agree with John, you can take all of Chris' posts on Andrew Cuomo and substitute the the name Eliot Spitzer. New York State government is broken and is an embarrassment nationally on the level of California and corruption that rivals Chicago. Maybe we could run Louise Slaughter for Governor and enact a "denture pool" where false teeth are collected from the deceased and distributed to those who can't afford them.

Jeff,
The taxman people would take the gold out of teeth first.

Chris, if what you say is true - and I have no reason to doubt you - then Cuomo way overstepped his bounds and should not be elected. Without regard to the content and nature of his proposals, there are well defined lines between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. He has proven he doesn't feel he has to play by the rules.