Paterson Having Trouble Keeping A Handle On His Own Office

New York is counting on having a responsible budget being passed for the next fiscal year. We need an effective and assertive Governor that looks out for the people (and not just the wealthy people) by making smart decisions and keeping things in order so that the budget goes through. Unfortunately, if you judge Paterson's potential to do this on the way he runs his own office, we are in a whole lot of trouble.

From The NY Daily News:

Last week, Paterson's new first deputy secretary, Lawrence Schwartz, got into a heated tiff over office space with the governor's chief of staff, Charlotte Hitchcock.

"It was brought to [Paterson] and he didn't want to get involved, so they're fighting amongst themselves," said a Democrat familiar with the incident.

"He refuses to lead, and nobody is empowered enough to set things straight."

Another Democrat described the executive chamber as engaged in a "Cold War."

Schwartz, the former Westchester deputy county executive, started his new job with Paterson last Monday and was widely expected to bring a measure of discipline to the governor's office.

The administration has been largely rudderless since Paterson's top aide, Charles O'Byrne, resigned in October in the wake of a tax scandal.

Since O'Byrne left nothing we've seen has been good for the reputation of Gov. Paterson. O'Byrne's tax problems were embarrassing, but nowhere near as bad as the loss of control over a possible early budget, the selection of Kristen Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate and now apparently the control of his staff. This isn't a problem caused by one man like Schwartz though, it is Paterson's problem with hte concept of leadership, he needs to start showing it.

Aubertine Exonerates Paterson

Liz pointed out yesterday that something was amiss about the whole Paterson trying to appoint Aubertine to the NYPA thing. Unfortunately I fell for it hook, line and sinker. The bait was enticing though, Senator Aubertine came out with a press release stating that he was declining a job with the NYPA that would have tripled his salary to stay loyal to his constituents in the 48th District. Well now Aubertine seems to backtrack, but just a little bit.

From The Daily Politcs:

Sen. Darrel Aubertine, whose NYPA job offer uproar got lost in the Sen. Joe Bruno-retirement shuffle, just issued the folowing statement:

"If there was a misunderstanding, then there was a misunderstanding. The Governor is a friend and ally and someone that I've worked with extensively on important energy issues."

"What's important right now is that we move on and not let this story distract from the important work we need to do before the end of session. We need to provide real property tax relief to working families across the state and reform and reauthorize IDA's so we can get them creating jobs."

"Above all, we need to do the work people elected us to do. I'm proud to serve the people of the Central and Northern New York and that includes working with my colleagues in the Legislature and the Governor to accomplish as much as we can before the end of session."

Senate Democrat sources insisted that the governor's chief of staff, Charles O'Byrne, called Aubertine on his cell phone last Tuesday while he was in session and then subsequently met with him on the second floor later that day and offered him the NYPA job.

The governor's office couldn't confirm the meeting to CapConf, which also reported that Aubertine and some of his fellow Democrats had a meeting with O'Byrne earlier today that got rather heated.

Hmm, that certainly does sound like a big misunderstanding. Perhaps he was offering the job at a date to be determined? Or maybe he wanted to give him the chance to have input over the next head of the NYPA? All of this seems odd, but the important thing is that at the end of the day, Aubertine is sticking around....and thankfully Joe Bruno isn't.