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.

Trying To Oust Aubertine? WTF Paterson?

David Paterson came into the Governor's office with high hopes from the progressive Democratic community. Although he may not be 'progressive,' he certainly had testified towards supporting many wonderful things, such as campaign and ethics reform. He failed us on that this year but at least he's still a Democrat right? Well one has to wonder what his motivation was in offering Senator Aubertine a job when our party is fighting so hard to win back the majority in the Senate after decades of Republican rule.

From Capitol Confidential:

In the brewing fight for the Senate majority between the Republicans and Democrats, Paterson has pulled one out of the Spitzer playbook - picking off a Senator with a plum appointed position.

But the attempt didn’t benefit the side you expect from the former Senate Minority Leader. At the urging of Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Paterson offered the job to Democratic Sen. Darrel Aubertine, according to sources. Aubertine declined the offer.

Aubertine is the Senate Democrats’ most vulnerable marginal, having been elected only 4 months ago in a costly special election in an overwhelmingly Republican Senate district. (see stats below).

A Watertown Daily Times story ran Saturday, reporting that Aubertine was offered the chairmanship of the New York Power Authority, which would have doubled his current Senate salary of $79,500.

Later that same day, Aubertine released a statement confirming the report, saying, in part:

”I was offered the opportunity to serve as NYPA chairman last week,” Sen. Aubertine said. “I’m certainly very, very flattered to not only have been considered, but to have been offered the position. After discussions with my family and friends, my decision was to keep my commitment to the people of the 48th Senate District.”

Well I'm glad at least one politician has the best interest of the 48th District and our party at heart. I'm not too sure about Governor Paterson though. Now Paterson's record indicates he is indeed a Democrat, so what gives? What does Joe Bruno have over him to make him try and offer Aubertine a position that would be to the New York Democratic Party's detriment? He may have reminded us of Spitzer, but at least Spitzer played dirty for our benefit, not Joe Bruno's.