New York Gov. David Paterson reportedly is ending his campaign for reelection, following low poll numbers and revelations he intervened in a case involving an alleged domestic assault by one of his aides.
The New York Times and the Albany Times Union reported Friday Paterson would exit the race. In a poll released by Quinnipiac University earlier in February, Paterson trailed New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo among Democrats 55 percent to 23 percent, and party leaders had pressed him to step aside to clear the path for Cuomo.
Paterson assumed the office on March 17, 200, following the resignation of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in a prostitute sex scandal.
Paterson is the state”™s first-ever black governor, and the first legally blind governor in U.S. history to serve longer than a fortnight.
Since becoming governor, Paterson has been dogged both by huge budget deficits as well as smaller scandals, beginning with his own admission of marital infidelity during a temporary separation from his wife. On Feb. 24, the New York Times reported that Paterson had called a woman who had accused his aide David W. Johnson of assaulting her. According to the report, the woman did not testify the following day in a scheduled hearing.
