Governor Paterson Must Want The State Senate To Stay Republican
This was buried in the back of the Democrat and Chronicle Sunday. I couldn’t find it on their website though — after all social networking is their new focus. It is a story proclaiming that Governor Paterson, after his first budget and more than 20 years in state government, has decided now is the time to stand up to public employees unions.
According to the AP:
“It can’t be business as usual,” Paterson said Thursday in
casting doubt on unions’ effort to boost benefits through the
Legislature. “This is not the time to sweeten the pot because
we’re about to lose the whole pot.”
It was a reference to what Paterson calls “the terrible truth”
of New York’s fiscal health. That includes locked-in benefits and
other spending in state budgets over the last several years that
prompt his projection of $21 billion in budget gaps over the next
three years.(snip)
But Paterson, in office just three months after 20 years in the
Senate’s Democratic minority where he benefited from the bales of
campaign contributions spread about by unions, lacks the public
mandate of those who were elected to the office. And he lacks
Bloomberg’s billions that would help him fight off the kind of
nasty union TV ad campaign that hurt Spitzer early in his brief
time in office.
Why in the world would Paterson take on this fight now? Don’t tell me it’s because he cares. This doesn’t make any sense. Right when the Working Families Party is prepared to abandon the Senate Republicans, Paterson pokes them in the eye.
I only see two explanations: 1) Paterson is talking the talk and has no interest in walking the walk (he trying to sound tough and has no intention of following through), or, 2) even he realizes what a disaster it would be for NYS to be ruled by a bunch of people who don’t care anything about the part of the state north of Westchester County.
4 Responses to “Governor Paterson Must Want The State Senate To Stay Republican”
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Cincinnatus
There is a third possible explanation. He is politically incompetent. He may not have the skills of his former boss.
Follow the money!
Maybe he is strong arming the unions for contributions.
Or maybe this is just a little dose of reality. There’s no way we can be doling out more sweetheart deals to union workers while the rest of the state is engaging in painful belt tightening. Now that he’s responsible for the budget, I think he’s a lot more sensitive to groups trying to grab as much as they can.
Great points Cincy. Paterson knows he doesn’t have to worry about the Working Families Party because the party no longer endorses candidates based on their “support for working men and women.”
Everyone on the inside knows the democrats took over the state WF party and that they will only endorse democrats despite their stance on the issues and the wishes of the locals. I don’t think the dems will be able to maintain control of the WFP for very long.
Paterson knows his Democratic party is in control right now and he can say and do what he wants without the fear of recourse.
Regardless of how you feel about WFP issues, the party’s ideals have gone right out the window now that the democrats are running their show.