New York could be on the verge of having a governor who has never been elected to any office.
Nonetheless, there are many who suggest that the elevation of Richard Ravitch might very well be an improvement on things as they stand.
New York Gov. David A. Paterson controversially named Ravitch, a lawyer and celebrated financial crisis manager, as lieutenant governor in July 2009. (Republicans challenged the appointment, but the state’s highest court ruled it was constitutional.)
The state had had no lieutenant governor since March 2008 when Paterson became governor, Eliot Spitzer having resigned in the wake of a prostitution scandal.
Now Paterson is mired in scandals of his own.
He was heavily damaged by reports of his alleged attempts to intercede on the behalf of an aide who faced domestic abuse charges.
After word of the possible interference was first reported in The New York Times, Paterson ended his campaign for governor.
Subsequent reports in the Times indicated that Paterson did more to help his aide than he first allowed. Some officials and women’s groups then called for him to leave office.
In a separate case, the state’s Public Integrity Commission has accused Paterson of violating his official position to get five free tickets to the New York Yankees’ opening World Series game last October. He faces up to $110,000 in fines on these charges.
At the least, some have suggested that Paterson let Ravitch, an enrolled Democrat who enjoys good relations with members of both parties, assume the governor’s role in state budget negotiations.
“He is widely seen as the only adult left in Albany,” wrote David M. Halbfinger in a recent Times profile.
Halbfinger suggests that Ravitch, 76, has several strengths in his dealings with members of the legislature: He understands budgets; he has good ideas, and he speaks his mind.
“He’s the most uninhibited person I think I’ve ever met,” Robert Megna, the state budget director, told the Times.
Perhaps most importantly, Ravitch is not running for office.
“My disability is my strength,” he said. “I’m not a candidate for anything.”
Maybe that’s just as well. Halbfinger reports that in his one foray into electoral politics, Ravitch finished third in the Democratic primary for New York mayor in 1989.
“Aides remembered him as a horrendous candidate, always saying something impolitic when he wasn’t grossing people out by picking his ears,” Halbfinger wrote.
But Ravitch, who headed his family’s construction business, has credibility to spare based on his performances saving agencies and cities.
In the 1970s, he revived the New York State Urban Development Corporation, a builder of low-income housing. During that decade, he was also a key player in the resolution of the city’s financial crisis.
And from 1979 to 1982, Ravitch was the chairman of New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, turning that agency around, as well.
Ravitch, perhaps modestly, isn’t claiming any great victories for his time as the last adult in famously dysfunctional Albany.
“The good thing is, I have a lot of nice relationships,” he told the Times. “The bad thing is, so far, I haven’t accomplished a thing.”
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