Nov 6, 2009 8:02 pm US/Eastern
Paterson Unveils Advertising Blitz To Save Job
Gov. Still Plans To Run Despite President's Request He Not
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Election Day in 2010 is still 361 days away, but Governor David Paterson is wasting no time in telling the world he plans on keeping his job. Now, he's launched a statewide ad blitz. (File)
CBS
Election Day in 2010 is still 361 days away, but Governor David Paterson is wasting no time in telling the world he plans on keeping his job. Now, he's launched a statewide ad blitz.
In a big "take that" to President Barack Obama and other Democrats – who want him to step asaide and let State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo be the party's nominee for governor – Paterson has begun an advertising campaign to keep his job with a $500,000 television blitz.
He talks about closing a budget gap.
"It might have been easier if all I thought about was running for governor," Paterson said in the TV ad.
Paterson also extols his many achievements despite the handicap of being legally blind.
"When this is what you see of the world, you learn to listen," a voiceover says in the advertisement. "When your family moves so you can attend a mainstream school, you learn to be strong."
"He's thrown down the gauntlet," Doug Muzzio said. "Let me use another cliché – it's a game of chicken. He's in the car, he's revved it up, he's gassing it – 'get out of my way.'"
Pundits say that the early ad campaign sends a special message to President Obama, who doesn't want him to run, and to Andrew Cuomo, who might challenge him in a primary.
"It's one of those famous Brooklyn arm gestures," Muzzio said. "Essentially what he's telling them is, 'I'm running, I don't care who's telling me not to run – whether it's the president, whether it's the corporations, whether it's the unions, whether it's the legislature, whether it's Andrew Cuomo – I'm going."
For a governor who has made a few high-profile missteps – like passing over Caroline Kennedy for the senate and then having his aides speak ill of her – there was a surprising candor in the ads.
"When you graduate high school in three years, Columbia University, and Hofstra Law, you learn you can excel," Paterson said. "When you become governor, you learn you will make mistakes."
For Governor Paterson, this is a coin toss.
He's got the ads. He's got a special session of the legislature next week, where he hopes to pass some headline-grabbing measures like same-sex marriage. And he's got until January 15 to show he can raise the kind of money it takes to win a campaign.
Heads, he wins. Tails, he finds another job.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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