Paterson's Communications Director Resigns

By Karen DeWitt

Albany, New York – Another of Governor David Paterson's top aides has resigned, this time, his Director of Communications.

Paterson's Communications Director Peter Kauffman issued a brief statement, saying, he "cannot in good conscience continue" working for the governor, Kauffman said as a former Officer in the United States Navy, he takes integrity and commitment to public service very seriously.

Kauffman is the third member of the Paterson Administration to leave in recent days. The head of the State police Henry Corbitt abruptly retired, and the governor's chief criminal justice advisor, Denise O'Donnell, quit after allegations in the New York Times. The paper said Paterson had tried to cover up a domestic violence incident concerning a top aid.

Kauffman's resignation comes a day after an ethics panel found the governor solicited free tickets to a World Series game and lied about it afterward. Kauffman had been instructed by the governor at one point to tell a reporter that Paterson had been invited to the game by the President of the Yankees, but that turned out later not to be true.

The governor is spending the day out of the public eye, while, at the Capitol, lawmakers continued to meet in session.

Democratic Party leaders say they have resigned themselves for the moment to try to work out a budget with the scandal plagued Paterson. The leader of the Senate Republicans, Dean Skelos, who controls 30 key votes in that house, says he's giving the governor a week to prove that he and his staff are up to hammering out a budget.

"He's certainly challenged right now in his ability to govern," said Skelos. "Hopefully, if he feels he can't do it, he will step aside."

Paterson has been charged with an alleged cover up of a domestic violence incident concerning an aid. An ethics panel had charged he illegally accepted free world Series game tickets. Senator Skelos says the accusations, if proven true, "rise to the level of resignation", and he suggests that over the next few days, the governor do some "soul searching".