New York – Sure, Governor Paterson announced he wouldn’t seek election this year in the wake of the scandal involving abuse accusations against his aide—and his own and the State Police’s involvement in speaking with the accuser—but is that good enough?

A number of other politicians called for him to resign; City Comptroller John Liu, who called Paterson a friend, said, “We have a $4.1 billion budget deficit to grapple with in New York City and cannot make real progress until the State budget is resolved on time one month from now. In order for this to happen, we need Governor Paterson to step down now.”

Former mayor Ed Koch told the Post, “He’s a guy who is considered road kill and will have no influence with the Legislature… No question the state would be better off if [Lieutenant Governor] Dick Ravitch were governor.”

Even the White House, which had urged Paterson to get out of the gubernatorial race last September, mentioned the incident; White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Friday said that reports were “disturbing… At a minimum, he made the right decision about his reelection.”

The Post’s editorial says, “Paterson is doing no one any favors by hanging on. He needs to step aside–now.” The Daily News agrees; in its editorial, it states, “Gov. Paterson spared himself the humiliation of a landslide repudiation at the polls by dropping his doomed bid for election – and now he must show equal mercy to New Yorkers by resigning from office.”

The NY Times’ editorial board offers, “He did the right thing — the only thing — by dropping out of the race, but that is not going to make his troubles go away,” and suggests that if he is staying in office for another 307 days, he needs to show political courage to deal with the budget and stand up to legislators.

(Source: Gothamist / NY Daily News)