Who Is David Paterson? (from various sources)
David A. Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and the current Lieutenant Governor of New York. He is the first African American to hold this position. He was selected as running mate by New York Attorney General and Democratic Party nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election.
Paterson was born legally blind in Brooklyn in 1954. He received a BA from Columbia University in 1977 and later his law degree from Hofstra Law School. After law school, he went to work for the Queens District Attorney's Office. In 1985 he joined the campaign staff of David Dinkins for Manhattan Borough President. In October of that year, longtime state Senator Leon Bogues, representing a district covering Manhattan neighborhoods Harlem, Manhattan Valley and the Upper West Side, died and Paterson won a highly competitive New York (Manhattan) County Democratic party Committee selection process to serve the rest of Bogues' term. The following year, 1986, he won the seat for his first full term representing the 29th District in the New York State Senate.
He is the son of former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson, who was the first African American NYC Deputy Mayor and the first to run for statewide office in New York. Secretary Paterson was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 1970. The elder Paterson also served in the NY state Senate in the same seat his son occupied. In 1993, David Paterson ran citywide for the office of the Public Advocate, the second highest elected office in New York City.
Paterson was elected Senate Minority Leader in 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking black elected official in the history of New York State.
A member of the Democratic National Committee and a board member of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, Paterson addressed the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston as well as the Democratic mayors at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Paterson is an active advocate for the visually and physically impaired. He was elected as a member of the American Foundation for the Blind, and also serves as a board member of the Achilles Track Club, having completed the New York City Marathon in 1999.
He has a younger sibling, Daniel, who is a New York government official. He lives in Harlem with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson. They have two children: Ashley, who entered Ithaca College in fall, 2006, and Alex, who attends school in New York City.
He has been mentioned in some political circles as a possible successor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should the fellow New York Democrat win the 2008 US presidential election and resign the seat to assume the presidency.
He is an avid fan of New York sports teams, and has been known to call in to WFAN, the sports talk radio station of New York City.
During their 2006 campaign, Paterson was involved in a dispute with Eliot Spitzer over "turf wars" between staff members.
He would become the first black governor of the State of New York, and the first blind governor in the United States should current Governor Eliot Spitzer resign following the Emperor Club prostitution scandal.
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