Gentle Reader
The Democrat and Chronicle is amazing. I’m not saying there is a media bias, but why in the world was the story about Paterson reimbursing his campaign account for a hotel room in NYC that very well could have been used for a tryst, placed on 5B?
I found this fascinating article about Paterson in the New York Times. His legislative career is a case study in conflicts of interests. First with his wife cashing in. According to the New York Times:
As a state senator, for instance, Mr. Paterson helped direct hundreds of thousands of dollars to a hospital in his Harlem district that for a time employed his wife, including for two years as its paid lobbyist in Albany.
(snip)
But Mr. Paterson appears to have been testing the limits of his own policy by helping North General Hospital, a small, private hospital in his district that had struggled financially. His wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, worked as North General’s director of government affairs from 2002 to 2005.
Ms. Paterson became the authorized lobbyist for the hospital in August 2003, about eight months after her husband was named the Democratic leader in the Senate. According to a report that North General filed with the state lobbying commission, Ms. Paterson lobbied the Legislature on budget issues in 2004. She left the hospital in January 2005.
The hospital’s president, Dr. Samuel J. Daniel, has said that he recruited Ms. Paterson in early 2002 to help get critical legislation passed that year that allowed North General to refinance more than $100 million in debt. He told Newsday last week that “Michelle was instrumental in getting me before the Legislature.”
Then there is old man Paterson, his father Basil.
Mr. Paterson’s father, Basil, raises another set of questions about potential conflicts of interest.
David Paterson has spoken of sometimes being helped by, and other times intimidated by, his father, whom he considers a valued adviser. But Basil Paterson, 81, has also served for years as wise man and eminence grise for many of New York’s biggest and most powerful unions in their contract negotiations.
Before and during the 2005 transit strike, he was often at the side of Roger Toussaint of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. He has also counseled other heavyweight labor leaders, including Dennis Riveraof 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers, and Lillian Roberts of District Council 37.
The transit union bargains with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency. And when 1199 negotiates with the city’s League of Voluntary Hospitals, it often looks to Albany to provide money to help finance its agreements. Both unions lobby the state heavily to increase spending on health care and mass transit.
There there are the bills that Paterson introduced in the Senate. Again, according to the Times:
One bill would have made it a crime for police officers to shoot to kill a suspect instead of shooting to merely stop the person. “There is no justification for terminating another’s life when a less extreme measure may accomplish the same objective,” the memo in support of the bill said. “For example, an officer would have to try to shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg.”
The measure — which would have left police officers who shoot to kill open to a charge of second-degree manslaughter — was roundly denounced by police unions. Police officials have long said that officers are trained to shoot to stop suspects who pose a deadly threat to themselves or others. Because accurately shooting a suspect in the heat of the moment is difficult, they are trained to aim at central body mass, not limbs.
Another bill, which Mr. Paterson later withdrew, would have repealed the law outlawing the use of force while resisting arrests, whether they were authorized or not.
He also introduced bills that would have extended the right to vote to noncitizens …
Oh yeah, one more things. What’s his record on paying his taxes? Take a look at the Times again:
Mr. Paterson is also known for a disarming frankness. At a news conference in 2005, for example, he volunteered that he had once under-reported his income to the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Paterson filed an amended return and paid the tax owed, amounting to a few hundred dollars, an aide said.
This guy is amazing. Don’t the people of Rochester have a right to know this stuff? We think so — that’s why we at Monroerising.com do what we do.
Tell a friend about this info and our site. We need to make sure the truth gets out!
Tags: David Paterson, Democrat and Chronicle, New York State, Prudence Izguhde by Prudence Izguhde
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