by Karl Kurtz
Yesterday, New York's high court upheld the power of Gov. David Paterson to fill a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor, created when he himself succeeded from lieutenant governor to governor last year. Paterson had appointed Richard Ravitch to the position earlier this year, and the Senate Republican leader, Dean Skelos, had filed suit asserting that the governor did not have this power.
From the New York Times summary of the decision:
At issue in the decision and the dissent were two provisions in state law, which could be read as conflicting. One provides that the governor “shall appoint” a person to fill a vacancy in positions for which there is no other provision for the fulfilling the vacancy. The other provides that the temporary president of the State Senate “shall perform all the duties of the lieutenant governor” if the position is vacant.
Judge Lippman wrote that the two provisions “are complementary rather than duplicative” and that the latter provision provides only for “stopgap coverage” of the lieutenant governor’s function and cannot “be understood to state that the vacancy may not be filled.”
Lower courts had consistently ruled that the governor did not have the power, but in a 4-3 decision the New York Court of Appeals ruled the other way.
Senator Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, the Republican leader in the State Senate, who was the named plaintiff in the suit, said in a statement on Tuesday, “The court has given new power and authority to an unelected governor where no such power had existed under the State Constitution.”
He said Judge Pigott’s premise raised the troubling prospect that an unelected lieutenant governor could become governor and then appoint yet another unelected governor, without needing even confirmation by the State Senate. “The court’s decision to allow the state’s highest offices to be filled with no accountability whatsoever to the public or to their elected representatives in the Legislature, is dangerous to democracy,” Mr. Skelos said.
“One thing is clear — we must change the law,” he said. “We need to clarify the process of filling the office of lieutenant governor to ensure accountability to the people through election or, minimally, Senate confirmation.
Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, the leader of the Democratic conference in the chamber, issued a statement congratulating Mr. Ravitch, saying that “today’s ruling will encourage all parties to end the political rancor and work together to meet the needs of all New Yorkers.”



