Shortly after Halloween last year, a Bronx woman named Sherr-Una Booker filed an order of protection against her boyfriend. She told police that her 6 foot 7 companion had slammed her against a dresser, ripped off her clothes, choked her, and taken away two phones when she tried to call for help. According to a New York Times article that ran on February 25th, she told the court during one appearance, “I thought it was going to be swept under the table because he’s like a government official, and I have problems even calling the police because the state troopers kept calling me and harassing me to drop the charges.”
Why would the New York State Police be contacting a domestic violence victim and asking her to back off? Perhaps because her boyfriend was David W. Johnson, one of Governor Paterson’s closest aides and confidantes, and the officers in question were members of the Governor’s security detail; perhaps because Paterson hoped to avoid the negative press that would result if news that a top aide had been charged with domestic violence became public.
Both parties say Paterson himself spoke with the woman about the incident, which he referred to as “a bad break-up,” but both also say that it was a brief conversation and he did not explicitly attempt to influence her next moves. A New York Times story from March 2, however, revealed that “Mr. Paterson instructed his press secretary…to ask Ms. Booker to publicly describe the episode as nonviolent”. Paterson did suspend Johnson without pay, but not until after the Times uncovered the story.
On February 26th, only six days after officially declaring his candidacy, Paterson announced that he would no longer run for re-election. The Booker incident was soon followed by another scandal, this time one involving allegations that the governor peddled influence for World Series tickets and then lied about it under oath.
In a Quinnipiac University poll released on Friday, March 5th, 42 percent of New York voters—up from 31 percent two days before—said they wanted Paterson to resign from the position he assumed when Eliot Spitzer himself resigned in disgrace two years ago (46 percent wanted Paterson to stay through January, and 12 percent were undecided). However, encouraged by support from several influential black leaders, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, Paterson has said that he will not step down. "I am working on the business of the people of New York," he told reporters. "At a certain point, I will cooperate with the investigations and will be clearing my name."
The National Organization for Women is among the groups calling for Paterson to resign, essentially arguing that Paterson, known before the recent scandal as an advocate for women’s rights, is not only a lawbreaker but a hypocrite. NOW is not the only organization to compare him to his predecessor, who was a law-and-order governor found to have violated the principles he most strongly advocated by soliciting prostitutes. Few outside of New York City had heard of David Paterson before Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation on March 12, 2008. His announcement came only two days after the news of his involvement with a high-priced prostitution ring broke; prosecutors had hard evidence on him, the state legislature was threatening impeachment if he did not step down, and one poll revealed that 70 percent of New Yorkers wanted him to go.
Yet, with the notable exception of Spitzer’s, resignations by embattled governors are rare. Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich refused to resign even after it became clear that the state senate would impeach him, which it did unanimously in January 2009. At one point in the summer of 2009, 54 percent of Americans believed South Carolina governor Mark Sanford should resign, and impeachment seemed a near inevitability, but his state’s legislature ultimately opted to censure him. The politician’s infamous disappearance cost him his marriage, but not his job.
If Paterson resigns, the lieutenant governor he appointed last year, Richard Ravitch, will succeed him and become “the second unelected governor in less than two years and the second to serve without the approval of the electorate or the legislature in less than two years." For Paterson to be motivated to step down, however, it appears that new, more overwhelming evidence would need to surface, or poll numbers calling for his resignation would need to reach Spitzer levels. Paterson has made many controversial and unpopular decisions since he took office, revealing a concern more for policy (whether his constituents agree with it or not) than electability.
As it stands now, New Yorkers can expect a new governor in January, but probably not before.
