Scandals Break (and Break and Break) in New York

NEW YORK (March 3) -- Political scandals are piling up at an astonishing pace in New York, even by the standards of a state distinguished for dysfunction.

Within just a few hours today, three scandals involving New York politicians emerged, each with its own twist. Gov. David Paterson, who is holding onto his seat as serious allegations that he intervened in a domestic abuse case on behalf of an aide are investigated, faced a separate set of charges for allegedly accepting free World Series tickets.

Rep. Charles Rangel, who has been accused of a variety of ethics charges involving taxes, real estate and trips to the Caribbean, stepped down from his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee.

And another New York congressman, Eric Massa, announced that he will retire after only one term in office amid rumors that he sexually harassed a male staff member. Massa, who has suffered from cancer in the past, said his decision was based on health reasons.

"New York's system is in a giant mess," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

In the last month, New Yorkers have had to wrap their heads around years' worth of scandals.

Allegations against Paterson and his aide, David W. Johnson, have already led to the resignations of two senior state employees. In early February, the state Senate voted to kick out one of its members, Hiram Monserrate, who was arrested in 2008 for slashing his girlfriend in the face with a beer bottle.

Next week will mark the two-year anniversary of Eliot Spitzer's resignation as governor amid revelations that he spent tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes.

States go through cycles of dysfunction, but right now the Empire State tops them all.

"Is there anybody in New York who's proud of the state Senate or the Assembly? I've never met one," Sabato said. "That is a dysfunctional legislature to say the least."

The state Legislature shut down for five weeks last summer when two Democratic senators, Pedro Espada Jr. and Monserrate, defected to the Republican camp, handing the majority to the GOP and bringing the Senate to a standstill.

When the deadlock finally ended, with Espada returning to the Democrats, New York state Sen. John L. Sampson apologized to the citizens of New York.

"Sometimes you have a dysfunctional family, dysfunctional family members, but at the end of the day, we understand that we are all one family and we are all home now," he said at a press conference.

Monserrate was arrested in 2008 for slashing his girlfriend's face with a beer bottle and forcibly dragging her down a hallway. Last October he was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge after the woman changed her story and said the cuts to her face were the result of an accident.

Though Monserrate was cleared of the more serious felony charge, the Senate voted in early February to kick him out of the chamber. After the vote, Paterson said Monserrate got off easy and insinuated that the former senator had tampered with the case.

"This seemed like a classic case of a woman who was intimidated, who didn't really understand what her independence could be and was victimized," Paterson said, according to the Daily News.

Tuesday, it was Paterson's turn for a scolding. Marcia A. Pappas, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, called for Paterson's resignation. Paterson maintains that he will not resign, but the calls for him to step down are growing. Gerald Benjamin, a dean at the State University of New York at New Paltz and a New York government expert, said he expects the governor will have to resign as more details come to light.

As the lovechild of the state's "dysfunctional family," Paterson's governorship has had mishap written into its DNA from the start. He ascended to his position when Spitzer resigned. If Paterson also steps down, it will be the first time since the 19th century that two governors have resigned in scandal in the same term, according to Sabato.

When he took office, Paterson tried to head off rumors with a surprising show of honesty. He announced that both he and his wife had had affairs in the past. He admitted to having used cocaine in his 20s and said that he hadn't "touched marijuana since the late '70s."

But the honesty did little to dispel the notion that he was a weak leader. A day before the first New York Times story broke about the domestic abuse, his approval rating was at 35 percent.

"I think he's just not credible at all, he was a joke," Sabato said.

Last September, the Obama administration requested Paterson not run for governor. Similar pressure led Harold Ford Jr. to announce that he would not run against Kirsten Gillibrand, the incumbent and a Paterson appointee, for U.S. Senate. In an op-ed piece, Ford wrote that "party bosses" had bullied him out of the race.

One of the reasons New York politics is so mired in dysfunction is because the Democrats have a stranglehold on the system. Without any competition, there is no impetus for politicians to clean up their acts.

"You need with great regularity to throw the bums out and throw new bums in," Sabato said.

But without any decent options, voters have little choice but to stick with what they've been given.

After Monserrate was ousted from the Senate, Paterson called for a special election to replace him on March 16. The election will pit Jose Peralta, a state assemblyman, against Monserrate. The ousted senator gathered enough signatures to join the race to replace himself.

"A lot of times they end up voting for the best of the worst," said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst at the Cook Political Report. "What it does breed is an enormous amount of cynicism and very low expectations, and that's not good for the process either."

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo likely will win the nomination for Democratic candidate for governor. He is more popular than any other New York officeholder, with an approval rating of 67 percent last week, according to a Marist poll.

Although, in a tidy completion of the political circle, Cuomo will have some competition from the "Manhattan Madam," Kristen Davis, who supplied Spitzer with prostitutes. Davis announced her candidacy for the governor Monday. For a minimum campaign contribution of $100, supporters can "GET FOK'D," which stands for "Friend of Kristen Davis."

Of course, with the governor teetering on the brink of complete failure and the budget deficit topping $9 billion, some New Yorkers might question why they'd have to pay anything at all to "GET FOK'D" by their government.