(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-19 14:37

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A day after his predecessor's sex scandal propelled him into office, Gov. David Paterson revealed Tuesday that he had affairs with a "number of women," including a state employee, but said that does not affect his ability to lead.

Paterson had admitted one affair in a newspaper interview hours after taking office Monday, but gave a fuller accounting at a news conference with his wife at his side.

Governor David A. Paterson gives his inaugural address after being sworn in as the 55th governor of the state of New York at the state capitol building in Albany, New York March 17, 2008. [Agencies]

"Several years ago, there were a number of women," Paterson said. "The public wants to know who its elected officials are and sometimes, even though you are human, and you are someone who just has feelings and has faults, there comes a time, perhaps, when you have to tell the public."

Paterson said that the affairs happened during a rough patch in his marriage, and that the employee did not work for him. He insisted that he did not advance her career, and that no campaign or state money was spent on the affairs.

The admissions dampened the mood in the Capitol, where legislators had chanted Paterson's name and cheered after he was sworn in Monday. But there were many significant differences between Paterson's infidelity and the scandal that took down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer, like Paterson a Democrat, has been accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars on high-priced call girls, including one last month. Federal prosecutors are deciding whether to pursue charges against Spitzer, who went after prostitution rings when he served as attorney general.

"I do not feel I have broken my commitment to the citizens of New York state," Paterson said.

Paterson, a Harlem Democrat, talked about one affair in an interview with the New York Daily News after he was sworn in Monday, but his comments Tuesday were the first showing that the couple's fidelity problems went deeper than he first acknowledged.

He and his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, said they both had affairs during a time when their marriage was headed toward divorce. But they admitted the infidelity, sought counseling and said they have built a stronger marriage and family.

"We dealt with it as a family," his wife said. "A marriage has peaks and valleys. ... No marriage is perfect."

The governor said that the affairs took place since about 1999, and that one extended into the beginning of his term as Senate minority leader, which began in 2002. None involved prostitutes, he said.

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