ALBANY—After receiving a standing ovation in Brooklyn during a “community conversation” there last week, David Paterson will travel this week to St. Albans for a similar forum.
These events represent Paterson trying to shore himself up with a critical constituency–African-Americans from the five boroughs. This event will be held at the St. Albans Congregational Church on Linden Boulevard tomorrow night.
“I’m looking forward to this second stop on our tour, to listen to Queens residents, and to talk about the challenges we face and what we can do together to overcome them,” Governor Paterson said in a statement sent over by his campaign manager. “I’m happy to answer questions, share my plans to create new jobs, discuss how the state’s finances affect our families, and outline where I want to take things in Albany.”
Paterson will be joined at the event by Assemblymembers Barbara Clark, Vivian Cook, William Scarborough and Michelle Titus, Councilmembers Leroy Comrie and Tom White. He will not be joined by any state senators; Paterson has been bashing members of that chamber since the summer.
The St. Albans meeting will take place in the district of Senator Shirley Huntley, who just dealt a blow to Paterson’s agenda by voting against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Interestingly, Senator Malcolm Smith–whose district is nearby–is not being billed as attending, nor is Representative Greg Meeks. Meeks was a conduit through which the White House, reportedly, kind of, expressed its desire that Paterson not seek election.
UPDATE: Fife sent over this flier, which does include Smith and Meeks in the billing. Neither are expected to attend; Meeks has votes in Washington and a spokesman for Smith said it is not currently on his schedule.
UDPATE 2: The event was added to Smith’s schedule today. He is slated to attend a conference in San Diego starting Wednesday, but added the event when schedulers realized he could accommodate it, a Smith aide said.
