Amid Impasse, Paterson Picks a Lieutenant Governor

Court, this will be fought in court and we will pay the cost of the lawyers for all sides. The verdict I believe will be no, this is not constitutional and we lose all the way around. This play for power actually ruins the agreed upon plans for a shared leadership role and puts the senate back to square one. The Lt Governor only casts a vote in the case of a tie. When each side refuses to sit with the other. First we have to get them to recognize the leadership, until that happens all this is moot.

Now reports say that the Republicans have a court order to stop this appointment and rightfully so. Read the Constitution, I already covered it the other day. Right after the swearing in Paterson made robo calls saying he did this for the people of the state, paid for by Paterson 2010.

Robo calls have been running throughout Republican Senators districts saying they are at fault. No, wrong, the downstate Democrats are. When they control our senators like Thompson and Stachowski we get screwed. Neither one of them are involved with any of the leadership talks, neither one of them have any power to represent us here in WNY. They need to stand up to represent us not the NY City Democrats.

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson named Richard Ravitch, a Democratic lawyer with a career in government dating back a half century, as the state’s lieutenant governor on Wednesday.

Mr. Paterson said Mr. Ravitch, 76, would bring stability to the capital and help him end what he called the “crisis in governance” that for more than a month has paralyzed the Senate during its 31-to-31 split. The governor wants Mr. Ravitch to preside over the Senate, cast tie-breaking votes on leadership and other procedural votes and succeed him should Mr. Paterson become unable to serve.

Mr. Paterson’s move was intended to end the turmoil in the capital, but it seemed chiefly to intensify it, drawing threats of legal challenges even before the governor announced his decision on television at 5 p.m.

The lieutenant governor’s office has been vacant since Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned last year and Mr. Paterson succeeded him; the State Constitution does not provide for filling the office in the event of a vacancy.

Mr. Ravitch is best known in New York for serving as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 1979 until 1983, and he also ran for mayor in 1989, losing in a primary to David N. Dinkins. Last year the governor called on him to develop a financial rescue plan for the transportation authority.

Mr. Paterson’s aides said they expected him to take over the role as soon as Thursday. They also made it clear that he would not be a candidate for the office in 2010 and that Mr. Paterson planned to pick someone else to run with him next year.

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, the state’s top legal officer and a Democrat, like Mr. Paterson, said this week that naming a lieutenant governor would be unconstitutional and entangle the governor “in a political ploy that would wind through the courts for many months.”

Amid Impasse, Paterson Picks a Lieutenant Governor