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

Paterson said that he didn't reveal the affairs during his time as a senator, Senate minority leader or lieutenant governor because no one had asked him, and that he came forward because he didn't want the rumors to cloud his governorship.

"I didn't want to be blackmailed," he said.

"I think we have a marriage like many Americans, maybe even like many of you," the governor told reporters. "Elected officials are really just reflections of the people we represent."

Paterson, who is legally blind and New York's first black governor, served two decades in the state Senate. His former colleagues have said they expect he will be a more unifying force than Spitzer, who often butted heads with legislative Republicans in his 14 months in office.

"Just as people were getting a good feeling and a feeling Paterson was a breath of fresh air, this happens," said Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll. "I think he spent some of his political capital from Monday because it becomes part of the same story: Who is he?"

"This all becomes who he is," Miringoff said. "It obviously doesn't do him any good with a lot of voters, but it's not a knock-out punch ... it's not the Spitzer situation."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, said Tuesday he doesn't believe Paterson was weakened by the disclosure.

"This Albany press corps was in a feeding frenzy, looking for anything they could do to find it," Silver said. "And basically what David Paterson did was say, 'Stop bothering people. Here's the story. And that's it.'"

Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who is next in the line of succession to the governor's office should something happen to Paterson, said Paterson's personal life is Paterson's business only as long as it doesn't interfere with how he governs.

Asked whether he thinks Paterson's disclosure will be a one-day story, Bruno said: "I hope so."

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