Senate Minority Leader
Paterson was elected by the Democratic caucus of the Senate as Minority Leader on November 20, 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking African American elected official in the history of New York State, unseating the incumbent Minority Leader, Martin Connor. Since the Great Depression, only one party caucus leader has been unseated in either legislature; Paterson succeeded without the help of a powerful patron, and owed no debts to other Democratic party leaders. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver sided with Connor, as did Brooklyn party leader Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. Paterson's ouster of Connor had been an alliance of Manhattan senators against the Brooklynite Connor's more suburban-friendly politics. His conciliatory withdrawal from the Manhattan borough president race, and his 2001 effort organizing Harlem elected officials to support the mayoral candidacy of Fernando Ferrer earned Paterson support in the Harlem and Manhattan Democratic leadership. "When I went to them and told them I was running for minority leader," Mr. Paterson said of his Harlem elders, "they were not only supportive, they were enthusiastic." David Dinkins telephoned wavering Democratic senators, lobbying them to support Paterson in the contest. Paterson indicated his long-term goals were to increase the number of Democratic Senators and, eventually, win a majority of the Senate.
Paterson became known for his consensus-building style coupled with sharp political skills.
In 2006, Paterson sponsored a controversial bill to limit the use of deadly force by the police, but later changed that position. He also supported non-citizen voting in New York local elections. According to the New York Post, he "chalked up a heavily liberal record."
Describing Paterson's tenure in the senate, The New York Times cited his "wit, flurries of reform proposals and unusual bursts of candor." On March 12, 2008, Melissa Mansfield wrote in Newsday that "many good government groups expect that efforts to clean up Albany would continue" under his governorship, based on his reform record in the legislature, but a legislative opponent, Sen. Dean Skelos, asserted that Paterson "carries an urban agenda against fairness to the suburban communities."
Previously, Paterson had been mentioned as a possible successor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should Clinton win the Democratic nomination and also the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Paterson is currently a Democratic party national convention superdelegate and has endorsed Clinton.
Read more about this topic: Political Career Of David Paterson
Famous quotes containing the words senate, minority and/or leader:
“This is a Senate of equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for the exhibition of champions.”
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852)
“If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a heart. It is as simple as that—but that isn’t simple.”
—Louis B. Lundborg (1906–1981)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)