Job Offer Or Not? Paterson Contradicts Aubertine; Sources Contradict Gov.

Was it a job offer or not? Darrel Aubertine, State Senator for the district that includes Oswego County, said last week he was offered the job of running the New York State Power Authority.

Gov. David Paterson said Monday that Aubertine must have misinterpreted something that was said to him. “I didn’t offer Sen. Aubertine a job running the Power Authority, and I don’t believe anyone in my office did,” Paterson said.

Monday night, Aubertine made a new statement: “If there was a misunderstanding, then there was a misunderstanding. The Governor is a friend and ally and someone that I’ve worked with extensively on important energy issues. What’s important right now is that we move on and not let this story distract from the important work we need to do before the end of session.”

And that’s it, right? A simple misunderstanding, and some egg on Darrel Aubertine’s face.

Except, maybe not.

According to Albany Times-Union reporter Irene Jay Liu, writing on the paper’s Capitol Confidential blog,

“Three sources said Paterson isn’t telling the truth. One called the governor’s version an “outright (expletive) lie.””

Liu reported that, according to the sources, the Governor’s top advisor offered the job to Aubertine last Tuesday by phone, and the two men met later that day to discuss it.

The advisor is now maintaining there was no job offer, the paper reports.

It’s not unusual for former legislators to move into appointed jobs running state agencies. And a few sitting legislators have left office mid-term to take such a job.

But this would have been unusual for a number of reasons:

• Paterson and Aubertine are members of the same political party. This is a technique most often used on members of the opposing party, to create an open seat in an election year.
• State Democrats just spent $2 million to win the 48th State Senate seat in an expensive special election.
• With Aubertine removed, there’s no prominent Democrat left in the district with name recognition and who has gotten votes in the past from Republicans.
• The Democratic Party is just a couple of flipped seats from taking control of the Senate for the first time in decades. Aubertine’s departure would make the job more difficult.

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