New York's Lieutenant Governor:
The Odd History of an Odd Job

By Henry J. Stern
December 27, 2007

As the old year draws to a close, and the new year thrusts itself upon us, it is time to step aside and look at what has taken place in government.

The principal news, of course, is the governor's fall from grace.  We do not know when a public official's popularity has ever declined by fifty per cent in his first year in office.  We can be selective about choosing among published pieces critical of the governor.

We link today to one that is not from a usual source.  It is an article in Commentary magazine's November issue by Ira Stoll and Jacob Gershman, managing editor and Albany bureau chief of the New York Sun. 

What is unusual about the Spitzer coverage is that scarcely a word has been written in defense of his conduct during his first year.  Writers do express different levels of hope for next year. We are on the optimistic side, predicting that he will survive, but with great embarrassment, the proceedings initiated by his nemesis, Senator Joseph L. Bruno.  Every day Bruno's long-heralded indictment is delayed gives the Senator another day for his minions to chop away at the Governor.  Erased computer tapes mean obstruction of justice, if that can be proven.  Meanwhile, if Bruno is not to be indicted, the Justice Department ought to say so. On the other hand, it took years to indict and try former Senator Guy Velella, who served a short term on Riker's Island on a plea bargain, where the underlying charge was bribery.

In recent months, the governor has widened his base of advisers.  Two officials have departed, press secretary Darren Dopp, an insider, and Dr. Olivia Golden, an academic expert on social services who was a Clinton commissioner in Health & Human Services.  Dr. Golden was the highest-ranking woman in the administration. Both Dopp and Dr. Golden have found new jobs, he as a public-relations man for Patricia Lynch's prominent lobbying firm, she as a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C.

Spitzer has, in recent months received advice on how to be more popular with others.  "If you want to get along, go along."   So he has refrained from invective, and proclaimed his friendship with legislators and lobbyists alike, seeking their support for whatever it is he still wants to do.   Fortunately or not, in the cold world of politics, very few, if any, people or organizations confer gratuitous benefits on others without the expectation of reward.  And those generous souls who may give money to politicians for idealistic motives like promoting the public interest are often the first to become disillusioned when the officeholder they have helped elect does not live up to their expectations.

Spitzer's hand picked Lieutenant Governor, a second-generation politician generally regarded as a good fellow, has avoided serious controversy during his first year. In fact, it is difficult for any LG to initiate substantial projects, and much of his/her work consists of avoiding embarrassment by not trying to overshadow or second guess the governor.  In that effort he succeeded. 

Under Governor Carey, Mary Anne Krupsak served as LG, a position she lost when she opposed Carey in the 1978 primary.  Under Governor Pataki, two women served as LGs, Betsy McCaughey (Ross at the time) in his first term, and Judge Mary Donohue in his next two.  Ms. McCaughey, a health expert, has gone on to do valuable work heading a Committee to reduce hospital deaths caused by infections.

 David Paterson is the first African-American LG to be elected. His father, a distinguished lawyer named Basil A. Paterson, was defeated for LG when he was the running mate of Mr. Justice Goldberg in 1970. Another black candidate, H. Carl McCall, was defeated by Al Del Bello in the Democratic primary for LG in 1982. DelBello, who was elected along with Mario Cuomo, quit after 25 months, saying he couldn't ":carrry on the charade of pretending I had a life," according to Wayne Barrett.

The usual way for an LG to become governor is if the incumbent dies, resigns or is impeached.  The last LG elected governor on his own was Mario Cuomo in 1982. Before that, Herbert H. Lehman was elected governor in 1932 when Governor Roosevelt sought higher office. More LGs advance at midyear than on January 1.

Four men in the 20th century became governors by filling vacancies.  In 1910, when Governor Charles Evans Hughes was appointed Chief Justice of the United States by President William Howard Taft, Horace White of Syracuse filled the office for the balance of the year.  In 1913, when Governor William J. Sulzer was impeached by the state assembly and convicted by the state senate and removed from office, ostensibly for failing to report his campaign contributions accurately, and committing and suborning perjury, but in fact for defying the orders of Tammany boss Charles F. Murphy by trying to appoint commissioners on the merits. Sulzer was succeeded by Martin H. Glynn of Albany.  Tammany had elected Sulzer in 1912, and experienced buyer's remorse when the governor of New York State took his responsibilities seriously, rather than take orders from political leaders as to whom to appoint to state offices.

Wikipedia describes the impeachment proceedings colorfully.  You should certainly link to it for an intimation of what happens to governors who are too much better than the boss-controlled hacks who populate the legislature.  But that was 94 years ago, legislators are probably somewhat wiser today and political bosses less powerful. Still when his own party turns on an elected official, for whatever reason, he can expect scant support from the other party. One benefit of a divided state legislature is that it will take two men to remove a governor, rather than one, sad and old as he may foolishly have been depicted.

Only one governor of New York State died in office.  He was DeWitt Clinton, nephew of the first governor, George Clinton.  DeWitt was responsible for building the Erie Canal, which contributed enormously to the economic growth of New York State.  He passed away on February 11, 1828, at the age of 58.  He was succeeded by lieutenant governor Nathaniel Pitcher, who served the balance of that year.

Governors were elected for two year terms until 1938, when, pursuant to a new state constitution, Governor Herbert H. Lehman was elected to a four-year term.  District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey of New York County was elected to the first of three terms of four years each in 1942.  Dewey, as a gangbusting DA, was a serious candidate for the Presidency at the 1940 Republican convention.  He won the nomination in 1944, losing to FDR, and in 1948, losing to Harry S. Truman.  In 1952, the Republicans turned to Dwight Eisenhower, who snapped their losing streak at five.

The other two LGs assumed the governorship under more tranquil circumstances.  Governor Herbert H. Lehman, who had held the office for ten years, 1933-42, resigned on December 2 of his final year to become director of foreign relief and rehabilitation operations for the US Department of State.  LG Charles A. Poletti filled in the last 29 days of Lehman's term and became New York's first (and only until Mario Cuomo) Italian-American governor. Poletti's name now graces a large power plant in Astoria.

On December 17, 1973, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller resigned his post with a year and two weeks remaining in his fourth four-year term.  His purpose was to give Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson a year or so on the job before he faced the voters in 1974. Rockefeller's interest in the job was said to have waned somewhat in the fifteen years he held it. He had unseated Governor Averell Harriman in 1958, and defeated then United States Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau in 1962, City Council President Frank D. O'Connor in 1966, when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran on the Liberal line, and former Supreme Court Justice and United Nations Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg  in 1970. His protege, Wilson, an able fellow, lost to Congressman Hugh Carey in 1974, which you may recall was the year of Watergate..

LG Paterson is unlikely to be elevated by either the impeachment or the criminal conviction of the incumbent governor.   President Nixon thought he was buying insurance against impeachment when he nominated Gerald Ford to be vice president, on the theory that no one could see Ford as a President of the United States.  The best thing the new President said on attaining the high office was: "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln".  At birth, he was not even a Ford but a King.  His name was changed to Ford when Gerald R. Ford, Sr. married his birth-mother.  A similar chain of events occurred when President Clinton's biological father was killed in an automobile accident and his widowed mother married a Roger Clinton.  In today's contest, Barack Obama's parents separated when he was two years old.  Whether these family situations had any bearing on the ambitions of the children is beyond our knowledge.  But it certainly didn't prevent them from choosing careers in public life.