Politics on the Hudson

Gov. David Paterson continued this afternoon to beat back questions about whether he will run to retain his seat next year, even putting out a warning to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani if Giuliani decides to run against him.

He said it’s easy for Giuliani, a Republican, to sit on the sidelines and lob criticism at him for dealing with the toughest fiscal crisis the state has ever had.

“If he thinks he could have done better, he should tell us that now,” Paterson told reporters after addressing state Democrats in Buffalo.

“Until he does, then I think that I should be running for governor and will be elected governor because he’s not bringing any new ideas.”

Paterson said he recently spoke with a Rochester businessman who said his son talked about supporting the embattled Democratic governor when Paterson talked about being fiscally prudent, but was miffed that Paterson “caved” when it came to passing the budget—which raised spending and added new taxes and fees.

But Paterson said he can combat that belief once he explains to voters how difficult it has been to control the state’s fiscal problems.

“You have to explain to people that you didn’t cave in, what happened was you were saving the state from going into default, you were saving the state from bankruptcy,” he said. “You were saving the state from becoming insolvent.”

He added that, “New York state has been fiscally stable in the most difficult time in its economic history. And when people here that, I don’t think they’ll mind that I’m running for re-election.”

|  Email This