David Paterson Biography

David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out the final two years of Spitzer's term from 2008 to 2010. He is the first African American to hold that position and the second legally blind U.S. Governor of any state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in January 1975. Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host on station WOR in New York City, and was in 2014 appointed chairman of the New York Democratic Party by his successor as governor, Andrew Cuomo.