ALBANY—In reporting this story about David Paterson's schedules, I spoke to Warren County Democratic Chairman Bill Montfort.
He took my call while in the basement of the county jail, where he–an elections commissioner–was inspecting voting machines. (He's another party chair who is not in Buffalo today; he said he's too busy with work.) Montfort said that Paterson's presence in Warren County was in line with any sitting governor's.
"In all honesty, Warren County isn't the largest county in the state," he said, recalling that Paterson last visited in April for Scott Murphy's victory rally in Glens Falls. "Sitting governors we don't have visit our county that often. Naturally, when they're running, they're in our county quite a lot. But with a lot of these guys, once you get elected, they lose your phone number."
What about Chuck Schumer, I asked. He's known to move around the state.
"Are you kidding? He's like horse shit," Montfort replied. "He's all over the place. That you gotta give Schumer a lot of credit, and it's been like that all the time."
"I used to say, ‘I don't know if I want you to come to the event or not because, well, it's like owning the cow.’ When you own the cow you're not going to pay for the milk. He was there so often! He's around so much that I don't know if people are gonna pay $50 to come to an event and see him."
