Recently David Paterson has officially decided not to run for a second term as governor of New York. It gave me pause as I tried to keep track of just how many screwed up things have happened in the last two years. For those less interested in political blogging; fear not, this reads more like a bad soap opera.
March officially marks 2 years since Elliot Spitzer was caught in a prostitution scandal and resigned to leave David Paterson in charge, as he immediately admitted to using cocaine and marijuana and to having an affair so as not to have two gubernatorial resignations in one year.
Fast forward to fall 2008, when in a huge victory, the New York State Senate became a democratic majority for the first time in 40 years. It seemed like, even in the midst of a hard recession, that things were going to get back on track. Then it was discovered that the GOP was using taxpayer dollars on a secret television studio, printing press, and a $50,000 luxury van. They paid top aids more than the governor and even hogged parking spaces. New Secretary of the Senate Angelo J. Aponte was quoted as saying, “Every time we nail something down, we uncover another rock and there’s another 30 people there — it’s all over the state,”
The majority and honeymoon lasted until early summer when Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate staged a coup against the democrats and gave the republicans a majority. Chaos ensued, lawsuits were filed and the caucuses locked each other out of the chamber.
Later, Monserrate came back, probably due to his fear of his impending court case of cutting his then girlfriend’s face with broken glass. It was all caught on surveillance video and he was later convicted and kicked out by the senate.
Pedro Espada stayed republican for a while causing a huge tie that regularly would have been broken by the Lt. Governor. If you’ll remember, our Lt. Governor is now the seated governor thanks to that Elliot Spitzer hooker scandal that just wouldn’t go away. Paterson tried to appoint one, but no one knew whether or not that was constitutional. It was tied up in court and everything was stalled for almost a month.
Finally, to get some semblance of order, the democrats bribed back Espada making him a new speaker of the house.
In the midst of a recession and budget shortfalls, he promptly hired his son for a position. It turns out he started the coup because he was mad because again, in the middle of a budget crisis, he couldn’t get money for his sham charities.
Most recently he has tried to upend rent regulation under the guise of helping the poor and was photobombed by tenants rights advocates.
During all the commotion, my senator got into some fights. Some with photographers, others with fellow seantors.
Meanwhile David Paterson kept prodding along, losing top aides due to infighting and eventually bungling the nomination of Hillary Clinton’s senate seat, first hinting at Caroline Kennedy and then not.
Most recently, he’s ended his race for governor due his involvement in the attempted cover up of a domestic violence case against one of his top aides. The state police, members of the governors security detail, and the governor himself individually spoke with the plaintiff on multiple occasions to allegedly intimidate her out of pressing charges.
Just to bring it all back full circle, just today, Kristin Davis, the Madam implicated in the original Elliot Spitzer prostitution downfall has announced her candidacy to replace David Paterson.
If you get a chance, read the attached articles. I am not making this up, but I wish I was.
Tags: David Paterson, Elliot Spitzer, Hiram Monserrate, Kevin Parker, Kristen Davis, NY Politics, Pedro Espada
March 7, 2010 at 11:13 am |
Perpetuating a long running tradition of doppelgangery, I have apparently chosen the same blog layout as you.
<3,
Fake Marisa