David Paterson

At 69 years old, David Paterson has this physical status:

David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to the end of 2010.

He is the first African American to serve as Governor of New York and the second legally blind governor of a U.S. state. Following his graduation from Hofstra Law School, Paterson worked in the District Attorney's office of Queens County, New York and on the staff of Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins.

In 1985, he was elected to the New York State Senate to a seat once held by his father, former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson.

In 2003, he rose to the position of Senate minority leader.

Paterson was selected to be the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election.

Spitzer and Paterson were elected in November 2006 with 69 percent of the vote, and Paterson took office as lieutenant governor on January 1, 2007. After Spitzer resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal, Paterson was sworn in as governor of New York on March 17, 2008.

Paterson held the office of governor during the Great Recession, and he implemented state budget cuts.

Paterson also made two significant appointments: In January 2009, he appointed then-U.S. Representative Kirsten Gillibrand to a vacant U.S. Senate seat, and in July 2009, he appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor.

Paterson launched a campaign for a full term as governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election, but announced on February 26, 2010 that he would bow out of the race.

During the final year of his administration, Paterson faced allegations of witness tampering, soliciting improper gifts, and making false statements; he was eventually fined for having lied under oath.

Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host and served as chairman of the New York Democratic Party from May 2014 to November 2015.

Early life and background

Paterson was born in Brooklyn to Portia Hairston Paterson, a homemaker, and Basil Paterson, a labor law attorney. Basil Paterson was later a New York state senator for Harlem, Secretary of State under Hugh Carey, and deputy mayor of New York City for Ed Koch. According to a New York Now interview, Paterson traces his roots on his mother's side of the family to pre-Civil War African American slaves in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. His paternal grandmother, a Jamaican, Evangeline Rondon Paterson was secretary to Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. His paternal grandfather was Leonard James Paterson, a native of Carriacou who arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917. It was reported by The Genetic Genealogist in March 2008 that Paterson had recently undergone genetic genealogy testing. Part of his father's ancestry consists of immigrants from England, Ireland, and Scotland, while his mother's side includes Eastern European Jewish ancestry, as well as ancestors from the Guinea-Bissau region of West Africa.

At the age of three months, Paterson contracted an ear infection that spread to his optic nerve, leaving him sightless in his left eye and with severely limited vision in his right. Since New York City public schools would not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his family bought a home in the Long Island suburb of South Hempstead so that he could attend mainstream classes there. Paterson was the first student with a disability in the Hempstead public schools, graduating from Hempstead High School in 1971.

Education

Paterson earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra Law School in 1983. After law school, he went to work for the Queens District Attorney's Office, but did not pass the New York bar examination, which prevented him from becoming an attorney at law. He claimed that his failing the New York bar was partially the result of insufficient accommodation for his visual impairment, and has since advocated for changes in bar exam procedures.

Personal life

Paterson dated Michelle Paige in college. After he broke up with her, she went on to marry someone else, have a daughter, and get divorced. In 1992, Paterson and Paige married. Two years later, they had a son named Alex. The couple separated in 2012 and divorced in July 2014.

Paterson reportedly dated a member of his staff, Pamela Bane, from 2012 to 2014. Paterson then began to date Mary Galda, former wife of Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa tweeted out his "approval" of the relationship in 2015. Paterson got engaged to Galda in 2019, and they were married on August 10, 2019, at the Water Club on the East River. The ceremony was officiated by former New York City mayor David Dinkins.

Paterson is Catholic.

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Later career

Paterson appeared on WOR in New York on several occasions as a replacement talk show host, filling in for morning host John Gambling after leaving office at the end of 2010. Paterson will be the station's regular weekday afternoon drive-time host beginning on September 6, 2011, according to the station. Steve Malzberg was fired from office. After Clear Channel purchased the station in December 2012, Paterson was able to walk away from his radio show at WOR.

Paterson was appointed to the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority by then-governor Andrew Cuomo in 2012. In June 2012, Paterson was first named to this position.

Paterson said in July 2013 that if U.S. Representative Charles Rangel resigned, he might run for Congress. Paterson also stated in December 2013 that he had "no intention of running for office in the 13th District, either now or in the future."

Paterson was appointed in 2013 to be a respected professor of health care and public policy at Touro College in Harlem, and he was also appointed to advise the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine on public policy issues. Paterson served as a director of investments for Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, a financial services holding company.

Paterson unveiled his portrait in early 2014, which is on display in the New York State Capitol's Hall of Governors.

Andrew Cuomo appointed Paterson chairman of the New York Democratic Party in May 2014. Following the November general elections, Paterson announced on October 7, 2015, that he would step down from his role.

In late 2020, Paterson's book Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Novel of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity was published. The book dealt not only about his personal life but also the lives of others and the past that influenced him.

Paterson endorsed Eric Adams, the eventual winner of the primary in 2021 New York City's Democratic mayoral primary.

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