New York Governor David Paterson will
end his reelection bid Friday, the New York Times reported.
Paterson will drop out of the
gubernatorial race amid allegations that he attempted to quash a
domestic-abuse case involving a top aide, David Johnson.
Paterson was elected lieutenant
governor in 2006 and took over the governor's mansion two years later
after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal.
Last year, the 55-year-old politician
pressured Senators to debate a gay marriage bill waiting for their
approval to become law. Eventually, Senators gave in to marriage
equality supporters, but rejected the measure.
Without Paterson's prodding, the bill
most likely would have been shelved.
Senator Ruben Diaz, a Bronx Democrat
who opposes the legalization of gay marriage despite having two gay
brothers, suggested that gay allies of the governor had left him in a
lurch.
“The governor went out of a limb for
the gay community in his efforts to support marriage equality and to
bring that bill to the Senate floor, even though he knew it did not
have sufficient votes to pass and that thousands of people in New
York State did not want it and will not support him for election
because of that issue,” Diaz
said on his own website.
“Where is the gay community now that
the governor needs them?” Diaz rhetorically asked.
In December, Paterson signed an
executive order protecting transgender state employees from workplace
discrimination. But a bill that would apply to employees working in
the public sector (GENDA) remains stuck in the Legislature.
With the abuse charges simmering in the
background and low poll numbers, the Paterson campaign was looking at
a nearly insurmountable incline to overcome.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is
considered the strongest candidate to be the Democratic nominee for
governor this fall.