Eliot Spitzer isn’t the only disgraced former ally giving embattled Gov. Paterson political advice.
Past gubernatorial chief of staff and tax scofflaw Charles O’Byrne — who became infamous after claiming that “late filers’ syndrome” prevented him from paying state and federal taxes for five years — has emerged as a key figure during the governor’s late-stage political collapse.
O’Byrne was described by Paterson political insiders as the architect of a new “victimization strategy” aimed at helping the governor recapture the black vote by claiming that a “white-owned media” is portraying him in a “racialized” and “hypersexualized” manner.
Paterson’s repeated recent use of the term “hypersexualized” to describe press reports that he was suspected of cheating on his wife was an O’Byrne-generated strategy meant to link the state’s first black governor to a historic racist stereotype, said a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
“Charles O’Byrne came up with the term ‘hypersexualized’ in an effort to mobilize black voters for the governor,” the source said.
O’Byrne did not respond to requests for comment.
Over a dozen recent public opinion polls have shown Attorney General Andrew Cuomo far more popular with black voters than Paterson in a Democratic primary for governor.
Paterson admitted last week that he’s been getting advice from his disgraced predecessor, Spitzer, with an aide explaining that the former governor has many “very good ideas about the way government should work.”
The statement came after The Post reported that the embattled governor had been getting counsel from Spitzer, whose resignation amid a hooker scandal in 2008 is the reason Paterson has his seat.
O’Byrne’s advice was described as “at odds” with a political strategy being pushed by Paterson’s current chief of staff, Larry Schwartz, and others that calls on the governor to continue his attacks on a “fiscally irresponsible Legislature” that’s “unwilling to make hard choices” in the public interest.
“The governor has shifted away from attacking the Legislature to playing the victim of the media, and many people think that’s a big tactical mistake,” said a well-placed source.
Insiders said O’Byrne, working in concert with former Spitzer administration and Troopergate scandal figure Sean Patrick Maloney, has been giving Paterson political advice on almost a daily basis since January.
O’Byrne, a gay former Jesuit priest with strong ties to the Kennedy political clan, was forced to resign in October 2008 after The Post disclosed that he had repeatedly failed to pay his taxes.