Governor Accepts Award on Campus

Before an A-list of heavy hitters in New York politics, Governor David Paterson, CC ’77, accepted an award and discussed his administration’s initiatives in confronting the financial crisis on Saturday night at Casa Italiana.

Paterson returned to his alma mater to accept the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute’s Distinguished Public Service Award. Among the many eminent attendees were current and former U.S. Congress members and other state officials.

The award was a tribute to Paterson’s political career. Paterson’s first elected office was in the New York State Senate—he was 31 and served the Harlem district that includes the Columbia campus. Paterson became senate minority leader 17 years later, and lieutenant governor in 2006. Paterson was sworn in as governor after Eliot Spitzer’s March 2008 resignation, becoming New York’s first African-American governor.

Paterson opened with his trademark humor: “I didn’t spend a dime to become governor,” he said to hearty applause. “I just got a phone call and was told, ‘You’re up.’”

He grew serious as he discussed how the Barack Obama administration should handle the global economic crisis.

“We are facing an economic downturn comparable only to the Great Depression,” said Paterson, whose recent agenda has focused on a nearly $50 billion state budget deficit that was exacerbated by the Wall Street collapse. “There’s only one way to rebuild the infrastructure of our economy and society: an economic stimulus package.”

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), CC ’70 and a staunch supporter of the stimulus package currently under consideration on Capitol Hill, lauded Paterson’s response.

“The governor has shown great leadership by forcing people to get their heads out of the sand,” Nadler said. “The budget cuts he’s trying to pass are necessary. Hopefully, along with the stimulus, they will give us some relief.”

As a result of the financial crisis, Paterson said he will cut key health care and education programs that he may have supported as a legislator.

Blinded as an infant, Paterson received the Roosevelt Institute award in part because, like Franklin Roosevelt, who was governor of New York when the Great Depression began, he has overcome physical handicaps. While Paterson said his classmates and professors at Columbia helped inspire him to overcome his disability, his time at the University was not easy.

“Columbia was a lonely place for me,” Paterson said. “I think I missed some of the opportunities that I could appreciate now. When I came here, I tried to out-compete everybody. Midway through my sophomore year, one of my friends suggested that I try to respect the great talent around me, and in turn, others would respect me.”

Paterson is now beginning his 2010 election campaign, but did not seem intimidated by the prospect of a challenge from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, or by the memories of the defeat his close friend H. Carl McCall suffered when he ran for New York’s governorship in 2002.

“In that contest, race was not nearly as much a factor as money,” Paterson said, referring to the fact that McCall was outspent by a margin of nearly three to one by his opponent, Republican George Pataki, and implying that money will be one of the determining factors in his election as well. “They won’t outspend me,” he said.

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