New York Gov. David Paterson’s secretive process to select Hillary Rodham Clinton’s successor in the U.S. Senate conflicts with his campaign promises to open up government and New York’s top regulator of open government laws says it appears to violate state law.
Just days from announcing his choice, Paterson won’t identify “about 10” people who he said are in the running to follow Clinton. He won’t release the blank questionnaire he sent to each of them looking for background information. He won’t turn over the candidate’s completed forms. And the public isn’t getting any idea how the hopefuls feel about broad or regional public issues — or even if public policy is being discussed.
“The process is confidential,” is the stock answer from his office for the appointment to what has been called the world’s most exclusive club.
The list of hopefuls and the questions posed to them in the questionnaire seems to most clearly violate the state’s post-Watergate freedom of information laws designed to make sure government officials are accountable to the public. And at least some of the answers by candidates in their background checks should likely be public, too.
“How could it not be public? It’s a blank form,” said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, the state agency that regulates enforcement of the good-government laws. Since 1976 Freeman, a lawyer, has been the top state employee who advises government and the public on interpretation of the public officers’ law.
The names of those under consideration – among them Caroline Kennedy, perhaps Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, several members of Congress and other elected officials – should also be disclosed, Freeman said.
“In my mind, the identities of those seeking one of the highest offices in the land would not rise to the level of unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” Freeman told The Associated Press in an interview.
Some case law also would appear to go against Paterson. A court found not even a village board could legally go into a closed-door executive session to discuss filling a vacant seat. Freeman said state law in some ways recognizes less privacy protection for those in public office or seeking public office compared to private citizens.
Cuomo, who as attorney general is the governor’s lawyer, didn’t respond to a question of whether he supported the secretive process. Cuomo has refused to say if he is seeking the Senate seat.
Paterson said Monday that he hasn’t publicly disclosed the information he has received from potential candidates because the request wasn’t “a government action. That was a personal request I made of the candidates. Some of the information was rather private.”
At a news conference, Paterson said the list of candidates is “personal.”
A copy of the questionnaire to applicants, obtained by The New York Times after Paterson’s office refused to release it, asks about finances and job history, but not about policy positions.
Meanwhile, Kennedy continued her efforts to reach out to political leaders and state and local officials.
While stopping short of a traditional campaign, Kennedy has been courting local power brokers. U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel released a photograph of Kennedy’s Monday meeting with him and state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. And on Sunday, she traveled to Brooklyn to meet with black lawmakers.
In 2005, then-Sen. Paterson relied on sarcasm when some of Albany’s notorious secrecy was peeled back after some outrage by himself, voters and good-government groups.
Then, as a candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006, reform was central to his platform shared by Eliot Spitzer, whom Paterson would succeed a year later following a scandal.
(Source: 1010WINS / AP)
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This should have been completed long ago. Hillary will be confirmed as Secretary of State very soon and then resign her Senate seat. There should be a designated senator ready to go as soon as that happens.