Politics on the Hudson

Governor Paterson sought today to move the discussion away from his U.S. Senate selection process and refocus on the state budget issues, but he was again dogged by questions about whether he knew about the source of a leak that bashed Caroline Kennedy.

“I had nothing to do with any of the negative characterizations of any of the candidates, particularly Caroline Kennedy, who withdrew from the process,” Paterson told reporters today after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“I felt bad for Caroline. She worked very hard.”

A day after Kennedy withdrew her name from consideration, an official close to Paterson told reporters that Paterson had no intention of picking her because of her inexperience and because there were potentially embarrassing personal issues that might come out about her, including tax and nanny problems.

Paterson has been pressed on whether he authorized the leak, but he said he knows nothing about it and won’t investigate further. He said chief of staff Bill Cunningham has told staff to not leak information to the press.

“I’m not going to hunt down scurrilous rumors from sources I don’t know,” he said.

He did admit he could have handled the selection process better by not talking publicly everyday about his thought process.

“Certainly during the process revealing how I felt every day confused the process and I would have probably acted differently in retrospect,” he said.

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