Political Career of David Paterson - State Senate

State Senate

In 1985, Paterson resigned his position as assistant district attorney to join the then city clerk David Dinkins' successful campaign to win the Democratic nomination for Manhattan Borough President. That summer, on August 6, state senator Leon Bogues died, and Paterson sought and obtained the Democratic party nomination for the seat. In mid-September, a meeting of 648 Democratic committee members on the first ballot gave Paterson 58% of the vote. That October, Paterson won the hotly contested special State Senate election. At the time, the 29th Senate district covered the Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, Manhattan Valley and the Upper West Side, the same district that Paterson's father had represented. Upon his election, Paterson became the youngest State Senator in Albany. He won the seat again in 1986 for a full term representing the 29th District in the New York State Senate, and served as senator until assuming the office of Lieutenant Governor on January 1, 2007. (The districts changed for the 2002 election.)

In 1993 Paterson ran citywide in the Democratic primary for the office of New York City Public Advocate, the second highest elected office in the city. He lost to Mark Green, who received 45 percent of the primary vote; Paterson was second in the five-candidate race, with 19 percent of the vote. Paterson did not have the support in the 1993 effort from senior Harlem Democratic leaders, David Dinkins, Percy Sutton, Charles Rangel or his father, Basil Paterson. In 1997, Paterson also campaigned for Manhattan borough president; when he withdrew from the race, he worked for the election of C. Virginia Fields, who won the office.

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.