DEMOCRATS are on the brink of an “all- out civil war” as unelected Gov. Paterson desperately fights to hold an office few think he can win at the polls next year, party insiders have told The Post.
The battle lines are pitting Paterson, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, a Paterson appointee, and several party functionaries against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic leaders of the Legislature, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who had a serious and unexpected public clash with the governor on Friday.
Cuomo, the highly popular son of former governor Mario Cuomo, is gearing up to run for governor next year and is seen by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and other senior legislative Democrats as their party’s strongest standard-bearer.
Paterson, with desperately low public-approval ratings and a penchant for blunders, is seen, by contrast, as so weak that his presence on the ticket could put Republicans back in control of the state Senate and, in what many Democrats view as the ultimate horror, guarantee the election of Rudy Giuliani as the state’s next governor.
“It’s become ‘Groundhog Day’ with Paterson. His disasters just keep repeating themselves,” was how one of the state’s best-known Democrats put it.
“The party is starting to unravel from the stress, and is on the brink of what could be an all-out civil war,” said a prominent Democratic operative.
“Worries over Paterson’s weakness are reaching the boiling point, with everyone realizing Andrew would be our strongest candidate next year.”
Democratic leaders have already discussed a strategy to convince Paterson not to run for election, although they’ve yet to set it in motion.
Paterson is insisting to friends that he has until December to turn things around.
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Meanwhile, 2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso, who nearly beat Alan Hevesi for comptroller in 2002, is emerging as a likely choice to head the state GOP.
“He’s thrown his hat into the ring over the past 48 hours and seems to be the favorite” to replace much-criticized Chairman Joseph Mondello, a prominent GOPer told The Post.