Obama asks New York governor not to run

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ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Gov. David Paterson isn't bowing to the latest pressure to scrap his plans to run for the office he inherited 18 months ago.

A senior Democratic adviser close to Paterson said Sunday that the state's first black governor is still planning to run and is focusing on the state's fiscal crisis. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak for Paterson.

The governor's office has refused to comment since reports Saturday revealed that national Democratic leaders hoped to persuade him to drop out of the 2010 race. That would pave the way for the far more popular Andrew Cuomo, the state's attorney general.
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The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist, said Sunday that he spoke to the White House and Paterson about his concern that Democrats do what is best for the people of New York. He wouldn't say whether he was advising Paterson to drop out.

The New York Times, which originally reported the request on its Web site, said that it was President Barack Obama who asked Paterson to withdraw.

The New York Times quoted a senior Obama administration official as saying that the proposal that Paterson be asked to step aside came from a White House political adviser but was approved by the president.

“Is there concern about the situation in New York? Absolutely,” The Times quoted a second Obama administration official as saying.

“Has that concern been conveyed to the governor? Yes,” the official told The Times.

The newspaper said that Obama's request was conveyed to Paterson by Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat from Queens, N.Y.

Critical office
Party leaders in Washington have become concerned about Paterson's political weakness, believing the governor's office is too important to risk losing, one of the state Democratic advisers told the AP on Saturday.

Paterson spokesman Peter Kauffmann declined comment to the AP on Sunday morning. White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A message about the race was delivered from top national Democrats at a dinner Friday night with Paterson, but it was unclear whether it was at the direction of Obama, one of the advisers said. The Democratic leaders spoke of a concern referred to as the "David Paterson problem," the adviser said.

The request has been in the works for a couple weeks, and the intention was to wait until after the state's primary to deliver it, the other adviser said.

Patrick Gaspard, Obama's political director, was scheduled to meet with the governor on Monday, one of the sources said.

Struggle in governor's office
Obama is scheduled to be in upstate New York that day, when he is expected to deliver a vision of economic revival to students at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.

As lieutenant governor, Paterson moved to the governor's office in March 2008 with Eliot Spitzer's resignation amid a prostitution scandal. But in the months since, his popularity has plummeted, and the state's economic situation deteriorated, with job losses mounting and the unemployment rate rising to the highest in 26 years.

Paterson has announced he will seek a full term in the 2010 election.