The New York Daily News is reporting as of about 10 minutes ago: [1]
ALBANY – In a stunning request, the Obama administration has made it clear to poll-challenged Gov. Paterson that the White House would prefer he not seek election to a full four-year term next year.
The Obama administration sent the message through White House political affairs director Patrick Gaspard, who met with the governor at his campaign headquarters for nearly two hours last Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.
“They expressed concern about his chances about being reelected and the likelihood his presence in the race made it more likely that Rudy Giuliani would enter the contest,” the source said. “The preference is that he not run. That message was conveyed directly.”
…
The message to Paterson not only represents the White House trying to heavily influence a top state race, but also is a case of the first black president pressuring New York’s first black governor to step aside.
This is amazing, on a number of levels, only a few of which the article mentions. If there was ever an indication that Obama knows he’s in trouble in terms of the next couple election cycles, it’s this. He clearly sees Giuliani as NY Governor a threat in terms of another presidential run on 2010.
This would also seem to leave the White House nod to the current NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. You will doubtless recall that in NY, AG doesn’t stand for “Attorney General” so much as “Aspiring Governor”. You may also recall the last person to rise to the Governor’s mansion via that path is now commonly referred to as “Client Number 9” [2] Not exactly a resounding endorsement for Cuomo. It gets better… Patterson has clearly labeled himself as not being a “Team Player” with the current power structure… and Cuomo, on the other hand IS a ‘Team Player”… which of course means he’s a walking disaster for NY and the country as a whole.