Sex, Drugs, and Slots

The bad news just keeps piling up for New York Governor David Paterson, leading to speculation that he, like his predecessor Eliot Spitzer, might have to quit the top job in the Empire State.

And the set of scandals that could drive Paterson from office are shaping up to rival those that drove Rod Blagojevich from office in Illinois, though it’s hard to top allegations of trying to sell the President’s former Senate seat.

Paterson, though, has allegations about sex, drugs, and slot machines piling up against him. So he’s in the running.

WPIX reported last night that federal investigators are poking into a deal awarding a gaming contract at the Aqueduct Raceway to a group of political insiders. Paterson this morning defended that deal, which awarded the contract to AEG, a group including the Reverend Roy Flake, a former congressman and Queens pastor whose endorsement Paterson has sought.

This morning, Paterson told Don Imus that he had done nothing wrong in the contract process. “They had the second-highest bid. They had the second-highest long-term benefit to the state,” Paterson told the grumbling, cowboy-hat-wearing radio host. “They were strongly competitive. They had a good relationship with the community. They had a strong minority and woman’s business component to their plan.”

Paterson’s defense this morning follows his insistence yesterday that there was nothing to a rumor that had been circulating that the New York Times was about to drop a bombshell of a story that alleged rampant sex and drug use involving the governor.

Now if that one were true, it might put Paterson in a league with the Second City’s hometown governor, Blagojevich, whose case should be going to trial soon in Chicago.

But Paterson insisted Tuesday that the sex and drugs rumors were just that, vicious rumors, and he wasn’t resigning.

“It’s a shame this much energy has to be devoted to false allegations, unsubstantiated rumors, and, in some cases, straight-out lies,” Paterson said. “For the past two weeks, I have been the subject of a number of incredible rumors. The rumors are just that: rumors.”

Paterson became governor in March 2008, after then-Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned. Spitzer admitted marital infidelities and faced allegations he was hiring prostitutes.

On his first day in office, Paterson and his wife, Michelle, publicly disclosed that both of them had affairs during a rocky stretch in their marriage. Both said they had since had marriage counseling and built a stronger relationship.

But it’s Paterson’s relationship with Flake that might be his undoing.

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com