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March 03, 2010

Will yet another NY governor resign under an ethics cloud?

By CREW Staff

Corruption, Ethics, States, New York, Eliot Spitzer, Governors

This editorial in today's New York Times urges Gov. David Paterson to resign unless he can provide a satisfactory explanation for his role in a legal case involving one of his top aides.

The Times writes:

It now seems clear that, at the very least, [Gov. Paterson] tried to arrange a ham-handed cover-up to avert a scandal involving a top aide. There are also disturbing signs that he or other state officials may have unlawfully intervened to protect the aide from accusations of domestic violence.

... If he can show that he did no wrong, he must do so fully and immediately. If not, he should resign.

The tale is sordid. The governor’s aide, David Johnson, is accused by his former girlfriend, Sherr-una Booker, of attacking her last Halloween. Ms. Booker obtained two orders of protection against him. In her first court appearance, she said that the State Police had tried to stop her from going to court. The judge noted bruises on her arms.

The possibility of a Paterson resignation looms exactly two years to the month after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring.