The former governor is a rare voice of reason in a party that has veered sharply left.
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It was a memorable day in 2008 when Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace amid scandal, leading David Paterson to become New York’s first African-American governor. As the Brooklyn director for Congressman Vito Fossella at the time , I was in my office when the news hit. Like many in my party, I dismissed Mr. Paterson outright as just another Democrat whose progressive views would not serve our state well. It was the easy, partisan response.
When Mr. Paterson became entangled in the Yankee ticket scandal in 2009 for soliciting and accepting five complimentary tickets to Game 1 of the World Series, I did not shed any tears. New York politics has long been a contact sport, and at the time, I saw little reason to expect better from yet another Democratic governor.
Over the years, though, I’ve come to respect Mr. Paterson as a rare voice of reason in a party that has veered sharply left. His recent appearances on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable” at New York with John Catsimatidis have only reinforced that view. Mr. Paterson is now issuing blunt warnings about the Democratic Socialists of America and their allies who are hijacking the Democratic Party.
In a recent interview, Mr. Paterson pulled no punches. He cautioned that failure to check the socialist surge, exemplified by figures like Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the primary victories of DSA-backed candidates, could lead to the party’s political “extinction.” He highlighted low-turnout primaries where radicals prevail with minimal support.
Citing the defeat of a longtime congressman, Adriano Espaillat, by Darializa Avila Chevalier, Mr. Paterson noted that just 5 percent of the district’s roughly 700,000 residents voted for the winner. “I would suggest that within two years a real organized campaign gets put together and she can take her 5 percent and go back to wherever she was before.”
This is not the bitterness of a sidelined politician. It is the candid assessment of a former state Democratic Party chairman who knows the electorate. Mr. Paterson has repeatedly criticized the policy failures that have defined one-party Democratic rule in New York.
These errors include cashless bail laws that empowered criminals and eroded public safety, sanctuary-state policies that strain cities with waves of migrants, and partisan redistricting schemes designed to entrench power rather than reflect the people.
Mr. Paterson’s voice carries particular weight because it comes from inside the Democratic tent — a Harlem native, former state senator, state chairman, and governor.
This reassessment of Mr. Paterson reflects a broader truth. During the Great Recession, facing a staggering $21 billion-plus deficit as governor, he made tough pragmatic choices to rein in spending which drew at least grudging respect from fiscal conservatives.
He showed, too, a willingness to reach across the aisle on select issues and govern with a degree of dignity amid crisis. In the years since, his radio work, including “The Left Versus The Right” on WABC, he has demonstrated intellectual honesty: a readiness to debate ideas and call out the failures of progressive experiments in crime, housing, education, and taxation.
Contrast Mr. Paterson’s realism with today’s far-left insurgents. The DSA’s wins in blue corners of New York City and the country do not represent America, but their radical policies — like defunding the police, identity-driven governance, and hostility to economic growth — threaten to alienate working-class Democrats and law-abiding citizens.
New York has hemorrhaged businesses, residents, and jobs to lower-tax, safer states. Mr. Paterson understands that a Democratic Party captured by socialist fantasies accelerates this decline, burdens taxpayers, undermines public safety, and weakens the social fabric.
Our nation’s 250th anniversary year is a moment calling for reflection on the enduring principles that built America: individual liberty, self-reliance, limited government, and opportunity for all. Mr. Paterson’s warnings remind us that abandoning these foundations for utopian experiments risks squandering the remarkable inheritance we celebrate.
Republicans have long warned about the consequences of unchecked left-wing dominance in states like New York and California. We favor limited government, strong law enforcement, secure borders, school choice, and pro-growth policies.
A sane, responsible Democratic opposition would serve the country better than a party marching toward socialism. Mr. Paterson’s willingness to sound the alarm by bucking his party’s current trajectory shows the kind of political courage increasingly rare in modern politics. The Democrats would be wise to heed his call for a return to the center.