http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/nyregion...aterson.html?hpMarch 17, 2008
Paterson Is Sworn In as New York Governor By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
ALBANY — Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson was sworn in as the state’s 55th governor on Monday, almost exactly a week after revelations emerged that his predecessor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, had patronized a prostitute and faced federal investigation.
Mr. Paterson spoke before a joint session of the state Assembly and Senate, with dozens of high-ranking officials in the audience. Many clearly ached for a conclusion to what has been an unusually sordid ordeal even for Albany, a capital well-acquainted with political scandal.
In a relatively brief speech lasting 30 minutes, Mr. Paterson, offered soothing rhetoric about unity and partnership, warmly saluting Albany’s legislative leaders and alluding briefly to Mr. Spitzer’s difficulties over the past year in working with the Democratic-controlled Assembly and Republican-controlled state Senate.
“What we are going to do from now on is what we always should have done: We are going to work together,” Mr. Paterson said. “With conviction in our brains and compassion in our hearts and the love for New York on our sleeves, we will dedicate ourselves to principle but always maintain the ability to listen.”
But Mr. Paterson’s inaugural remarks were most striking for what was absent from them.
In a speech with so many nods to other elected officials that even a former lieutenant governor made the cut, Mr. Paterson made no mention of Mr. Spitzer, who plucked him from virtual obscurity to join the ticket for statewide office in 2006, and whose powerful and at times overbearing personality were the central fact of political life here for nearly a year and a half.
Mr. Paterson alluded only vaguely to Mr. Spitzer’s resignation, noting that New York had experienced “a very difficult week.” And he made no particular commitment to Mr. Spitzer’s political priorities. Though he and his staff have sent signals in recent years that continuity would be a key theme of the transition between administrations, Mr. Paterson made no suggestion that Mr. Spitzer’s core agenda items deserved to survive even if the former governor’s career did not.
Indeed, Mr. Paterson offered almost no specific policy proposals or promises, though an aide said that the new governor would lay out a more a specific agenda in the days ahead. He hewed closely to the theme of unity, describing himself as Brooklyn-born, Long-Island-educated, and Harlem-residing, to rousing cheers from elected officials who hailed from each of those areas.
Unlike Mr. Spitzer, who in his inaugural address 15 months ago fired shot after shot across the bow of Albany’s political establishment, Mr. Paterson warmly embraced the capital’s two other major powers, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno.
“Let us grab the unusual opportunities that circumstance has handed us today and put personal politics, party advantage and power struggles aside, in favor of service in the interests of the people,” Mr. Paterson said.
Only when his speech turned to the worsening economic downturn and its likely effect on the state budget gap did Mr. Paterson offer a hint of challenge.
“We are looking at an economy that is reeling and I must say to all of you in government and all of you in business that you must meet with me in the next couple of weeks and adjust our budget accordingly,” Mr. Paterson said, suggesting that budget austerity may be needed.”
Mr. Paterson, the state’s first blind governor as well as the first black one, also nodded to the historic nature of his swearing-in.
“I have confronted the prejudice of race, and challenged the issues of my own disability,” he said. “I have served in government for over two decades. I stand willing and able to lead this state to a brighter future and a better tomorrow.”
“Let me reintroduce myself,” he concluded. “I am David Paterson, and I am the governor of New York State.”
At times, the event felt more like something of a coronation for Mr. Paterson, the scion of a Harlem political fraternity that is powerful and well-connected in New York politics. His father, Basil A. Paterson, a former state senator and secretary of state, stood behind him when he first ascended the dais, as did his mother, his wife, Michelle, and his two children. They remained there as Mr. Paterson, a well-liked veteran of Albany, was greeted by exultant cheers and whistles, and a lengthy standing ovation.
“It’s a great day for New York, and for those of us from Harlem, it’s an even greater day,” said Senator Bill Perkins, a Democratic senator from Manhattan, who replaced Mr. Paterson when he was elected lieutenant governor.
New York’s United States senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, were in attendance, along with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, former New York governors Hugh L. Carey and George E. Pataki, and the current governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
It was Mr. Pataki’s first trip to Albany since undergoing intestinal surgery earlier this March, and his second inaugural in two years.
Mrs. Clinton, no stranger to divisiveness in politics, said she believed Mr. Paterson would seek to bring some unity and cohesion to the state as governor, and would not favor downstate interests over upstate ones.
“I think that he understands completely that he has to reach out and involve everyone and he intends to do that just as he has throughout his entire career,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Mr. Paterson also spoke briefly on Monday with President Bush, who called the governor-designate just before 9 a.m. to wish him well, telling Mr. Paterson that he looked forward to meeting.
“He said his friends told him that while it was a big job, he could handle it,” the White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said.
Throughout his speech, Mr. Paterson struck a mirthful, even casual tone, more like the news-conference banter at which he excels than a major public address.
Whereas Mr. Spitzer favored a sermon-on-the-mount style of oratory, Mr. Paterson at times sounded more like the announcer at a Las Vegas boxing match. At least a third of his speech was devoted to respectfully introducing legislative leaders and other officials in attendance, each of whom was introduced with a flourish and a backslapping joke.
Introducing Mr. Bruno, for example, Mr. Paterson recalled how the Senate leader had once invited him to his upstate horse farm for dinner.
“I’ll go,” Mr. Paterson recalled replying. “But I’m going to take my taster with me.”
No joke, that: Despite his friendship with Mr. Bruno, Mr. Paterson whittled four seats from the Republican majority during his four years as Senate minority leader. Privately, some Democrats were already thinking beyond the budget, to the fall elections, where control of the State Senate — the final bastion of Republican power in New York — will be at stake.
Entering office last year with overwhelming popularity, Mr. Spitzer was expected to be the anchor of his party’s efforts to retake the Senate. Over the last year and a half, his fund-raising and political support helped the Democratic minority win two more Senate seats.
Mr. Paterson is not untested in such matters. But his fund-raising ability and skills at the bully pulpit are essentially untested, as senior Democratic officials noted on Monday.
“There’s no question he had resources available both personally and in his ability to tap,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat and leader of the Queens County party. “But there will be others to fill those voids I think—David, being one of them, will have to step up in that regard, to ensure that the money that is needed will be raised and emphasis is put where it is needed.”
Well before stepping into the baroque chamber of the State Assembly and to be sworn in by the state’s chief judge, Judith S. Kaye, Mr. Paterson wanted his swearing-in ceremony to convey a sense of coming together.
To dispel any notion that the event has a celebratory tone, Mr. Paterson and his staff referred carefully the ceremony as a swearing-in, not an inauguration.
There was some debate among Mr. Paterson’s top aides about whether to hold a large public ceremony or a small private one. It was felt that a large ceremony could give the appearance that Mr. Paterson was wallowing in Mr. Spitzer’s downfall.
But Mr. Paterson was aware of the symbolism of bringing together all three branches of government in the room known as “the people’s chamber.”
Mr. Paterson spent the weekend drafting the speech, rehearsing it and committing it to memory. Because he is legally blind, he does not have the luxury of being able to read from a teleprompter. So his remarks were be partly memorized and partly improvised, aides said.