David Paterson

His paternal grandfather was Leonard James Paterson, a native of Carriacou who arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917.

At the time, the 29th Senate district covered the Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, Manhattan Valley, and the Upper West Side, the same district that Paterson's father had represented.

David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer, who resigned, and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010.

A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and the first African-American governor of New York.

Following his graduation from Hofstra Law School, Paterson worked in the District Attorney's office of Queens County, New York, and on the staff of Manhattan borough president David Dinkins.

Paterson was the first student with a disability in the Hempstead public schools, graduating from Hempstead High School in 1971.

Paterson earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra Law School in 1983.

After law school, he went to work for the Queens District Attorney's Office, but he did not pass the New York bar examination, which prevented him from becoming an attorney at law.

He claimed that his failing the New York bar was partially the result of insufficient accommodation for his visual impairment, and has since advocated for changes in bar exam procedures.

In 1985, he was elected to the New York State Senate to a seat once held by his father, former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson.

On August 6, 1985, state senator Leon Bogues died, and Paterson obtained the Democratic party nomination for the seat.

In mid-September, a meeting of 648 Democratic committee members on the first ballot gave Paterson 58% of the vote, giving him the party nomination.

That October, Paterson won the virtually uncontested special State Senate election.

Paterson briefly ran in the Democratic primary for the office of New York City Public Advocate in 1993, but he was defeated by Mark Green.

Paterson was elected Minority Leader by the Senate Democratic Conference on November 20, 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking black elected official in the history of New York.

Paterson unseated the incumbent minority leader, Martin Connor.

Paterson became known for his consensus-building style and sharp political skills.

Describing Paterson's tenure in the Senate, The New York Times cited his "wit, flurries of reform proposals and unusual bursts of candor".

In 2003, he rose to the position of Senate minority leader.

Paterson was selected to be the running mate of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election.

He was re-elected ten times, and remained in the state senate until 2006, sitting in the 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th, 195th, and 196th New York State Legislatures.

Spitzer and Paterson were elected with 65% of the vote, and Paterson took office as lieutenant governor on January 1, 2007.

After Spitzer resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal, Paterson was sworn in as governor of New York state on March 17, 2008.

Paterson held the office of governor during the Great Recession, and he implemented state budget cuts.

It was reported by The Genetic Genealogist in March 2008 that Paterson had recently undergone genetic genealogy testing.

Part of his father's ancestry consists of immigrants from England, Ireland, and Scotland, while his mother's side includes Eastern European Jewish ancestry, as well as ancestors from the Guinea-Bissau region of West Africa.

At the age of three months, Paterson contracted an ear infection that spread to his optic nerve, leaving him sightless in his left eye and with severely limited vision in his right.

Since New York City public schools would not guarantee him an education without placing him in special education classes, his family bought a home in the Long Island suburb of South Hempstead so that he could attend mainstream classes there.

He also made two significant appointments: In January 2009, he appointed then-U.S. representative Kirsten Gillibrand to a vacant U.S. Senate seat, and, in July 2009, he appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor.

Paterson launched a campaign for a full term as governor in the 2010 New York gubernatorial election, but he announced on February 26, 2010, that he would bow out of the race.

During the final year of his administration, Paterson faced allegations of soliciting improper gifts and making false statements; he was eventually fined in excess of $62,000 for accepting free New York Yankees tickets.

He was not charged with perjury.

A concern temporarily arose with regard to influencing a witness, but the witness's lawyer, Larry Saftler, said that the conversation (initiated by the witness, according to Paterson) lasted about a minute and that the governor asked how she was doing and if there was anything he could do for her.

"If you need me," he said, according to Mr. Saftler, "I'm here for you."

Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host and chairman of the New York Democratic Party from May 2014 to November 2015.

In late 2020, he published his first book, entitled Black, Blind, & in Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity.

Paterson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Portia Hairston Paterson, a homemaker, and Basil Paterson, a labor-law attorney.

Basil Paterson was later a New York state senator for Harlem, secretary of state under Hugh Carey, and deputy mayor of New York City for Ed Koch.

According to a New York Now interview, Paterson traces his roots on his mother's side of the family to pre-Civil War African American slaves in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina.

His paternal grandmother, a Jamaican, Evangeline Rondon Paterson, was secretary to Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.