Paterson launches election campaign at Hofstra

Striking a defiant tone, Gov. David A. Paterson Saturday launched his election campaign with a vow to win an upset victory and put residents' needs ahead of those of the powerful.

He admitted to the crowd of about 500 people at Hofstra University that he's down in the opinion polls, needs more campaign cash and has been discouraged from running by Democratic Party chiefs. But he said he deserves a second term for keeping New York solvent during the worst economic downturn in 70 years.

He said he had persuaded the State Legislature to stanch more than $33 billion of red ink, ensuring the credit rating wasn't downgraded. Unlike other cash-strapped states, he said, New York hadn't been forced to release prisoners early, shorten the school week or close libraries.

"We continued to fight because New Yorkers never give up," Paterson said. "I'm a New Yorker. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to win the election for governor this year!"

The audience of party activists, church groups, Boy Scouts, housing advocates and a few Republicans erupted in applause. Outside the Hofstra student center, however, about 25 protesters denounced the governor's cuts to parks.

Paterson selected the university to kick off his campaign because he studied law there and went to nursery, elementary and high schools in Hempstead.

The event differed from those held for the second-term bids of then-Govs. George Pataki and Mario Cuomo. Their announcements weren't until May. In 1998, Pataki, a Republican, attracted 1,000 supporters to a park in his Hudson Valley hometown. Twelve years earlier, Cuomo, a Democrat, held news conferences at his offices.

Neither faced a primary challenge, however.

Paterson Saturday didn't mention by name Cuomo's son, Andrew, the attorney general who many Democrats want to run instead. But Paterson alluded to the younger Cuomo when he said, "if you want a candidate that's always telling the special interests what they want to hear but has never told the people of New York what they're going to do about the problems of our time . . . then don't pick me."

A Cuomo aide declined to comment.

Another rival, Republican Rick Lazio, a former congressman from Brightwaters, said "the state has lurched from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis" since Paterson became governor in 2008 after Eliot Spitzer resigned.

At Hofstra, and later at a union hall in Rochester, Paterson touted a range of accomplishments that includes safeguards against unnecessary home foreclosures, expanded medical insurance for young people and the jobless, more state contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses and an end to the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

The items drew praise at Hofstra.

Gilford Finch, a real estate developer from Hempstead Village and registered Democrat, said: "I liked what I heard about health care and the mortgage situation. He's showing he wants to lead."

Greg Packer, a Republican and retired highway worker from Huntington, agreed, adding, "He's doing the best he can with what he's been given."