President Obama and his political team is worried that Mr. Paterson cannot recover from his dismal political standing, and have signaled to him he should not run, two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation said Saturday.
The move represents an extraordinary intervention into a state political race by the president, and is a delicate one, given that Mr. Paterson is one of only two African-American governors in the nation.
The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the administration officials said.Top Democrats have grown increasingly worried that the governor’s unpopularity could drag down Democratic members of Congress in New York, as well as the Democratic-controlled Legislature, in next fall’s election.
But Paterson isn’t backing down in the face of what has to be unimaginable pressure:
“I have said time and time again that I am running for governor next year,” he said at the 40th annual African-American Day Parade.
This is now the second statewide race in New York this cycle where Obama’s tried to urge someone to drop out – remember, he personally phoned up Steve Israel and told him to back off a primary challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand. Yet even though I’m completely done with Paterson, this latest move makes me uncomfortable. For a sitting president to try to push an incumbent governor out of running for re-election seems like a bridge too far. So far as I know, even Dick Cheney didn’t try this (or at least, didn’t try this publicly) with loser GOP govs like Frank Murkowski (AK) and Ernie Feltcher (KY).
And where does it end? A lot of Democratic governors have crappy approval ratings these days, such as Deval Patrick, Jon Corzine and Bill Ritter. Obviously each race is different, but is everyone supposed to be on notice now? Is this what the 3 am phone call is going to turn out to be?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m firmly in the “Paterson should not run again” camp. I’m also not the kind of person to shed a tear about candidates who decide to drop out because they can’t hack it and then blame “the establishment.” But when the president gets involved, that just seems over-the-top to me, and in these particular circumstances, it seems completely unnecessary, too. If Andy Cuomo were to run, he’d obliterate Paterson, and, if need be, Rudy Giuliani as well. And our congressional candidates would have a very popular attorney general running for governor at the top of the ticket. So really, what’s going on here?
I’l all for the President using his political muscle to get better results. I really wish he would do more of that in Congress (threatening, say, Republicans).
Even with Cuomo and Schumer at the top of the ticket, Paterson will still likely be a drag. And next year is the chance we have to cement our power in New York for some time to come, so this election is particularly critical.
Plus, imagine what a pain it would be to deal with Rudy at the other end of a veto pen.
as I firmly believe a lot of Obama doing this had to do with Patterson already turning this into a question of race. It isn’t, he’s being a giant douche bag by trying to make it seem like it is. While normally these black candidate vs white candidate thing arent as far reaching into what else is going on politically, no doubt about it that a racially divisive primary election between Paterson and Cuomo would’ve really hurt him as President.
as Charlie Rangel or John Murtha, than people with re-election issues.
I am not a Patterson fan but what’s being done to him is totally wrong. I don’t think Patterson’s bad poll numbers should be taken too seriously. Patterson has never run a statewide race and most voters don’t really know him or seen him on the campaign. I mean the polls show Patterson losing the black vote in NY. Give me a break! If he runs (even in a primary vs Cuomo) he’ll rack up 80% to 90% of the African American vote. So what do these polls mean now? Not much. They just show that people in NY are angry with how things are being run. Thats why Spitzer got elected. Patterson just needs a chance to get in front of voters in NY and show that he can be a change agent, but everyone is cutting him down before he has a chance to do anything good. Not fair and not right.
to get him out of the way? A judgeship? An ambassadorship to some obscure country?
Especially when there is a decent possibility that Cuomo doesn’t want to have to worry about a potential 2002 all over again. I mean I don’t see the big deal with Obama.
And I’d also like to point out that by the time Fletcher and Murkowski were running, even in Alaska and Kentucky Bush and Cheney were so unpopular as to be toxic, so I think the point is kinda moot.
This recommended diarist on DKos here thinks it has to do with Paterson’s racially charged (and completely spurious) rhetoric potentially setting up a very bad situation in front of the media, much of which happens to be based in NYC. The last thing Democrats at the national level need is a rogue governor who has never been elected to his office and has failed miserably at every task he’s been given staging a poorly executed racial confrontation in front of the cameras and coming off as the second coming of Jesse Jackson. It also suggests that Paterson is acting mostly as a proxy for his father in a generational pissing contest for control of the NY Democratic party that also stems indirectly from Charlie Rangel being threatened with investigation. If the Harlem Four lose both Paterson and Rangel, they become irrelevant overnight for the first time in about half a century. They’re willing to risk damaging the party nationwide in order to cling on for an additional few months before the DOJ closes in on Rangel and Paterson loses to Basically Any Republican. Obama is basically the only person with the authority to tell Paterson to stand down and have any weight whatsoever.
I don’t think your fear of a unilateral executive intervention in any other state’s politics is justified. Obama is just very squeamish about what gets laid at the New York media’s feet, as he should be.
This diary might not have all the answers, but it at least makes sense.
in my opinion. The WH political team correctly views Paterson as a wounded animal. Paterson already dropped the race issue as a big warning to Cuomo that he has every intention of trying to inflame the AA community during a primary election. Obviously, Obama wants none of this noise, especially in a state whose political developments get amplified on the national level.
But again, I don’t buy into the hand wringing. The President is the leader of his party and encouraged someone not to run. There was no royal edict. Obama has cut his ties with Paterson, and the Governor is making his own decision anyway. The distance will help when David fires up the race machine.
Ritter, Corzine and Patrick all dug their own graves. But they haven’t thrown up signs that they will drag the Democratic party into a big sh*tstorm like Paterson has been doing, AND they still might win. Paterson will never win, and can really wound Obama or distract his message by running.
After the special election in NY-20, it is very apparent that the Dems have made a lot of progress and dyed many blood red district in New York State blue. We really don’t need a crushing blow to Patterson to make those districts red again. With Cuomo it will just make those districts stay blue. Personally all that Cuomo needs to do is just challenge Patterson in the primary. Patterson has recently been getting anywhere from 27% to 17% while Cuomo has been always polling over 60%. We need to just draft Cuomo and the problem will solve itself.
Obama is doing this to counter act that. I’m actually thinking that Cuomo might not run had Paterson kept pushing race. So I think Obama is doing this more to allow Cuomo to get into race without racially polarizing the Dem Primary.
Isn’t Cuomo being really reluctant to run against Patterson? I’m pretty sure its because he is trying to avoid what happened in 2002.
Seriously, chill out. Just because Obama tells someone something, it doesn’t mean anyone will listen. And I doubt Patterson WILL listen. This is more for Cuomo. Why else would he make this public?
Obama can have opinions, and urge people to run or not run. BFD.
And it in terms of problems with this issue, its laughable to mention it in the context of Paterson. Backing Specter is bad, but pressure for Gillibrand or Bennet is much worse. These are appointees.
Obama has been a weak President so far, and this paterson step is months overdue. It’s a shame Corzine could not have been pressured months ago too.
Democrats, including the President, should not ass kiss every lame incumbent we have. Our problems as an electoral party for the past 30 years have been because of a large number of very shitty candidates. It’s about time sensible people grew a backbone and told delusional people it is time to move on.
I guarantee you that David Paterson will absolutely lose if he winds up the Dem nominee. And, if George Pataki runs, he could probably drag Kirsten Gillibrand down enough to flip two seats to red territory. He would get clobbered by Rudy Giuliani, and to think a race against Rick Lazio would be a nail-biter is the greatest testament of all to what dreadful shape Paterson is currently in.
Andrew Cuomo cannot allow the nightmares of Carl McCall to haunt him away from bringing forth a challenge (though I suspect they could, especially if Charlie Rangel keeps his rhetoric up). Cuomo would demolish Paterson in a primary, perhaps even beating the incumbent among African-Americans. Lazio wouldn’t stand a chance against Cuomo, and while Giuliani could probably keep him under 55%, I suspect he ultimately wouldn’t run against Cuomo in the first place.
Paterson has been an incompetent Governor, and he’s being a stubborn politician.
They pushed Jim Bunning out and would like to do the same to Jim Gibbons. I have no problem with the President asking a lame incumbent to step aside for the good of the party.
First, there are several congressional reps in NY that were elected in 2006 and 2008 in good democratic years. Unfortunately I don’t think 2010 is gonna be a very good democratic year, and alot of those people that were elected are gonna find themselves in competitive races. Second, you also have Sen Gillibrand who’s also up for election in 2010. Now something tells me none of these people want to share the ballot with a governor that’s at 20 percent approval. In fact I’ll bet money that some people very high in the NY Dem establishment have been urging the White House to muscle Paterson out of the race.
Third, Cuomo could run against Paterson in the primaries. But I think some of us are ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room, and that is race. Paterson has kind of demonstrated in the past few weeks that he’s not above using the race card, and some of his allies have proven that as well (charlie Rangel). Fourth, I’m getting the distinct impression that there isn’t really alot of love between Paterson and Obama. Paterson did endorse Hillary in the presidential primary, he trashed Caroline kennedy after she withdrew her name from consideration for the senate and I think when he choose Gillibrand the White House wasn’t to crazy about having to defend a potential vacant house seat. Fifth, Paterson’s numbers are just so BAD, that there’s no getting around it. He would have to dramatically improve in order to get elected.
For the record I’m not really fan of the president getting involved in state races. But in this situation I can sort of understand. Although I think the White House should have been a little more discrete. I’m guessing however last week Paterson told the White House where to go, hence the leak.
I’m pretty ok with the president getting involved in downticket races in ways that he thinks will help the party on election day.
It’s overdue, if you ask me. Where was this willingness to mix it up when Obama was carrying Minnesota by like 56-44, while Franken was getting like 42% of the vote? Merkley should not have been THE ONLY FRIGGING DEMOCRAT to get a tv ad.
And thanks be to Schumer for arranging both the Merkley ad and the Paterson intervention. Someone’s gotta do it.
This is a unique race because the NY Dems have a candidate waiting in the wings that would win the general in a landslide, but is probably still haunted by his 2002 primary flameout against H. Carl McCall. Paterson has given every indication that he’s going to make this an ugly primary if need be. The WH needs to lean on Paterson hard.
Far more important than McCall, which is somewhat ancient history, was Cuomo’s criticism of Obama during the primaries. The Obama people pilloried Hillary about it. If Paterson plays the race card, and he is, Cuomo is afraid of becoming a permanent pariah within the Democratic Party in NY.
Racial politics has gotten out of control in NY City. There is a reason that Rudy and Bloomberg have been able to get elected and a reason (other than money) that Bloomberg will make it 20 years of Republican rule in the Democratic city of New York.
Of course, it is not an issue as much statewide or in congressional districts. Citywide it becomes a three way brawl (non-hispanic white, black, hispanic). We want and need everybody aboard. David Paterson is not only a lousy Governor, he’s a tone-deaf politician as well and he could do long term damage.
Good riddance, and thanks Mr. President.
I think this article pretty much sums up what a boneheaded move this was:
http://www.politickerny.com/53…
He has every right to do this and I’m glad he has. We know Cuomo is worried about causing a rift with the AA community after the 2002 primary with McCall so this gives him cover to mount a primary next year if it comes to it.
In 2002, Tim Pawlenty wanted to run for Senate but the White House was concerned a divisive primary would hurt their chances to take out Wellstone. Cheney called Pawlenty and encouraged him to run for Governor as they didn’t think wingnut Brian Sullivan (the only major GOP candidate that was then in the race) was going to win the general. Pawlenty agreed, and the rest is history. There’s a reason why Pawlenty has always had an inside track to the national stage – he was a Cheney favorite.
The WH also backed Haley Barbour in his 2003 bid for Mississippi Governor over Mitch Tyner. Not sure if they shoved out any bad incumbents though.
Editorial: With Friends Like These
Here are the concluding paragraphs:
That’s an angle I hadn’t thought of. Wasn’t the budget passed already, and isn’t he a lame duck, regardless?