Governor Paterson Launches Campaign Ads

As New York governor David Paterson called state senators to session for a potential vote on marriage equality, he also took the unusual step of beginning to air campaign ads nearly one year before the 2010 gubernatorial election.

The two 30-second spots, reported by Liz Benjamin at the New York Daily News, began airing statewide on Friday. They position Paterson, who is legally blind, as an executive who dares to do the right thing in the name of the people of New York, often under trying circumstances.

One ad, called "Some Say," seems to allude to reports in September that President Barack Obama wanted Paterson, who assumed office in March 2008 after Eliot Spitzer resigned in the midst of a prostitution scandal, to drop his bid for election because of chronically low approval ratings. The governor does not mention detractors by name in the ad.