NY Gov. Paterson says he’ll clear his name soon, won’t quit despite watchdog group’s call

NY governor says he’ll clear his name soon

NEW YORK — New York Gov. David Paterson said Friday that he plans to clear his name soon in two scandals threatening his administration, but that constant press reports are turning the public against him.

“I think that people originally hearing about this thought the governor should be allowed to clear his name,” Paterson said outside his Manhattan office. “But then there have been a number of more articles with unsourced information, rumors and innuendo and inaccurate information that when cobbled together over and over and over again certainly have an effect.”

Paterson is facing allegations that he and his staff interfered in a domestic violence case involving a top governor’s aide. Also, a state ethics panel has accused him of seeking and accepting World Series tickets from the New York Yankees last year despite a gift ban, then lying to the panel about it.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Friday found that 46 percent of New Yorkers said Paterson should finish his term, while a survey released earlier in the week had that number at 61 percent.

“Support for Gov. David Paterson erodes with every new headline,” said pollster Maurice Carroll. “New York state voters started the week giving the governor the benefit of the doubt 2-1. Now, there is more doubt and less benefit as he clings to a bare plurality of support,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The poll questioned 1,325 New Yorkers on Wednesday and Thursday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

The good-government group Common Cause, which had supported Paterson, called for his resignation Friday. Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner said Paterson is unable to fully focus on the state’s fiscal crisis because he’s ensnared in two scandals that threaten his job.

Lerner says that Paterson deserves due process, but that the state budget and deficit require full attention.

A Paterson spokesman says the governor is working on budget issues despite the scandals. He met with legislative leaders this week.

Common Cause came “to the reluctant conclusion that it would be in the best interest of the people of the state of New York for Governor Paterson to step aside as governor,” Lerner said.

“As events have unfolded over the last several weeks, the allegations of abuse of power and criminal conduct by the governor have become the sole focus in Albany, at a time when the undivided attention and full creativity of the state’s leaders must be devoted to addressing the state’s very grave fiscal crisis,” Lerner said.

She said Paterson deserves due process for any charges that are brought against him and a resignation would be seen as self-sacrificing, not an admission of guilt.

“I am working on the business of the people of New York state, the most urgent of which is that we pass a budget,” Paterson told reporters later.

The New York Public Interest Group, which had criticized Paterson’s veto of an ethics bill he viewed as too weak, said there’s no proof Paterson isn’t addressing the budget. He held a public meeting with legislative leaders on the budget this week and at least one private session, while the staffs from all sides confer.

“A decision to resign should be based on whether or not he can do the job,” said NYPIRG’s Blair Horner.

“I don’t have any plans to resign,” Paterson said Friday. “At a certain point, I will cooperate with the investigations and will be clearing my name.”

Paterson refused to comment on the resignation Thursday of this communications director, Peter Kauffmann, the third member of his administration to quit during the scandals. Kauffmann said he was quitting as a matter of integrity, without providing details.

The state Public Integrity Commission cited Kauffmann’s testimony, and corroborating e-mails, as evidence that Paterson violated a gift ban and likely lied about it.

The New York Times has also reported that Paterson directed Press Secretary Marissa Shorenstein to contact the woman in the domestic violence incident linked to Paterson aide David Johnson. Kauffmann was Shorenstein’s boss.

Johnson was also one of the people who received Yankees tickets to the World Series, attending with Paterson, another staffer, Paterson’s son and a friend of his son.

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Gormley reported from Albany. Associated Press Writer Megan Scott contributed to this report.