March 12, 2008, 4:45 pm

Spitzer’s Successor: David Paterson, NY’s First Blind Governor

Posted by Jacob Goldstein
When David Paterson was three months old, he got an ear infection that spread to his optic nerve, leaving him legally blind. Fifty-three years later, Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, effective Monday, will make him the first blind governor of New York.

“People are fond of saying of people with disabilities that they are just like everybody else,” Paterson told the Associated Press in 2002, when he was elected Democratic leader of the state senate. “But that’s just something to say to make them feel better. When you have a disability you are not like everyone else. You are uniquely defined by a lack of vision.”

He can’t see at all out of his left eye, and his vision is 20/400 in his right eye, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports. That means Paterson needs to be within 20 feet to see what a person with normal vision sees from 400 feet away. The threshold for legal blindness in New York is 20/200 in the better eye with the best possible correction.

Paterson can read for brief stretches by holding a paper very close to his face, but the New York Times notes that aides often brief him by leaving him long voicemail messages. He memorizes his speeches. He manages to get around without a guide dog or cane, though he tells the NYT that he’s not above asking for help when he needs it.

“I don’t act the way I did when I was 17, like I can do everything myself, because I realized the minute I do that, no one helps me,” he said. “So I learned to be a little more pragmatic about life.”

Somehow, Paterson has also managed to play basketball from time to time in Albany, the 2002 AP story said, and the former governor Mario Cuomo was among his opponents. “He’s got some kind of sonar for the basket,” Cuomo told the AP.

Paterson Sports Bonus: Like the Health Blog, Paterson is both a big Mets fan and a habitual listener to WFAN, a sports-talk station in New York. Last month, he called in to overnight host Tony Paige, and showed his WFAN chops by invoking the name of Short Al from Brooklyn, a frequent late-night caller. Paige asked how Paterson and Spitzer, another fan, had time to listen sports radio. Paterson replied: “It distracts us from reality of a $4.4 billion budget gap.” You can listen to the conversation, featuring Paterson’s analysis of the Mets’ deal for pitcher Johan Santana, by going to the archive on WFAN’s Web site.







Paterson To Become N.Y.'s First Black Governor

POSTED: 9:13 am EDT March 12, 2008
UPDATED: 11:52 pm EDT March 12, 2008


NEW YORK -- In three short days Lt. Gov. David Paterson has gone from an anonymous political figure to the impending governor of one the nation's most influential states.

As Spitzer Chapter Ends, New Era Begins

Patterson will become the acting governor of New York, replacing Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned on Wednesday. Paterson is expected to be publicly sworn in on Monday.


Paterson will become just the eighth black governor in American history, the first in New York. He'll become the 55th governor of New York, joining names like John Jay, Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller in the annals of New York history.

Paterson will complete Spitzer's term, which ends Dec. 31, 2010.

Attention turned to Paterson immediately after word surfaced Monday that Spitzer had been linked to a high-priced prostitution ring. Spitzer issued a vague public apology on Monday before relenting to mounting pressure for his resignation on Wednesday morning.

Paterson, the 53-year-old Democrat, legally blind career politician from Harlem is well respected by Republicans and Democrats.

Nearly half of registered voters in New York State have either never heard of Paterson or aren't sure how to rate his performance in office, according to a WNBC/Marist Poll released late Tuesday.

Forty-eight percent of voters are unfamiliar with Paterson, the poll found. Thirty-five percent of voters statewide rate him positively, and only 17 percent do not have a positive impression of him, the poll added.

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch recently called Paterson "very capable, not withstanding his near sightlessness. It's never impeded his public actions or his personal actions and he's really overcome it in an extraordinary way."

Paterson's disability has been a non-issue in Albany for more than 20 years as he has memorized lengthy, impassioned speeches without missing a mark.

"He's smart, he's knowledgeable about New York state government and politics and he's a guy who likes to get along with people," Carroll said.

As for what a Gov. Paterson would face, Carroll sees a "fairly placid, amiable time for awhile."

Paterson has enjoyed a good relationship with Spitzer's chief nemesis, Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, despite being the architect behind getting Democrats to within one seat of taking control of the Senate. In pointed yet often humorous floor debates, a kind of father-son relationship was evident between the Harlem Democrat and the rural, upstate Republican.

Spitzer surprised Paterson with the lieutenant's job offer two years ago, so focused was he on taking control of the Senate and becoming majority leader. But Carroll doesn't expect Bruno to hold a grudge.

"Bruno is scrappy, but he doesn't go looking for fights," Carroll said.

Paterson has an advantage in that he ascends to the governor's post with most of three years remaining in the term. That helps avoid the stigma of being a lame duck, said Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll on Tuesday.

"If he becomes governor, he can move forward with what he wants to do as governor and start to set a tone," Miringoff said Tuesday. "The state will have been shaken by all these revelations and I think he's someone who is widely respected and he has a lot of experience in the corridors of Albany."