[blindlaw] New York's lieutenant governor, a blind lawyer,

[Michael O. Hanson]

I beliefve he resigned this morning.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nightingale, Noel" <Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov>
To: <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:24 AM
Subject: [blindlaw] New York's lieutenant governor, a blind lawyer,


> 
>>From the Justice For All sidebar blurb:
> 
> First Blind Governor of New York? 
> 
> In the wake of yesterday's breaking news of New York Governor Elliot
> Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring, many top aides to Spitzer
> expect his resignation. 
> 
> If Governor Spitzer does resign, Lt. Governor David A. Paterson, who is
> legally blind, would become the state's first black, first blind
> governor. 
> 
> A bit more about Mr. Paterson:
> 
> Link to NY Times profile:
> http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/david_a_pat
> erson/index.html?inline=nyt-per
> 
> Text:
> David A. Paterson
> Stewart Cairns for The New York Times
> 
> David A. Paterson was elected lieutenant governor of New York in
> November 2006 on the ticket led by Eliot Spitzer. Previously, Mr.
> Paterson had served as the minority leader of the state Senate. The
> scion of a prominent Harlem political family, Mr. Paterson was born
> legally blind and worked as a prosecutor before entering politics. 
> 
> Mr. Paterson's decision to become Mr. Spitzer's running mate stunned
> many in Albany. With the growing strength of Democrats in statewide
> elections, it seemed only a matter of time before his party took over
> the chamber, allowing him to join the ruling triumvirate in Albany and
> take his seat with the governor and the Assembly speaker to decide
> between them how New York State is governed. By contrast, the lieutenant
> governor's post brings with it no power and little prestige. 
> 
> Mr. Paterson explained the decision in terms the few lieutenant
> governors who had been given a real role, saying he wanted to be an
> "extension'' of Mr. Spitzer. Others close to him spoke of the enviable
> position he would be in if there was a chance to move up. If, for
> instance, Hillary Clinton were to become president, Mr. Spitzer would
> appoint a replacement to complete her term. Mr. Paterson has
> demonstrated political skills and good timing in the past; he became the
> minority leader in the Senate by pulling off a coup, which is a rare
> feat in Albany. 
> 
> As the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Mr. Paterson has
> tried to make up for his lack of power with wit, flurries of reform
> proposals and unusual bursts of candor, a combination that has made him
> a quotable presence in a Capitol where such leaders are often ignored as
> irrelevant. He worked on making inroads with national Democrats,
> traveling to Washington to meet with Congressional leaders. And here,
> where much of what passes for legislative humor is of the backslapping
> variety, Mr. Paterson's stands out. 
> 
> Take his request at a recent news conference on government reform.
> "Anyone else in this Capitol that's telling you about the reform that
> they're doing, I want you to give me their names, we're going to bring
> them to this conference room, and we're going to beat them up," he said,
> with a straight face. 
> 
> Mr. Paterson was born to politics. His father, Basil, represented the
> same Harlem district that his son later did, and ran unsuccessfully for
> lieutenant governor in 1970. The younger Mr. Paterson was raised at the
> knees of much of Harlem's old guard. He also grew up legally blind,
> after an infection as an infant that left him totally without sight in
> his left eye and with severely limited sight in his right. His family
> moved to Long Island, where they found a school that agreed to educate
> him in regular classrooms. He graduated from high school in three years,
> went to college at Columbia and graduated from Hofstra Law School. 
> 
> When he was elected Senate minority leader, Mr. Paterson recalled the
> discrimination he had suffered because he is disabled. "So I have had
> this desire my whole life to prove people wrong, to show them I could do
> things they didn't think I could do," he said. "This is just another." 
> 
> --March 10, 2008
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