Good News: Paterson's Secretive Selection Process May Be Illegal

Of course nothing will ever come of this--we're dealing with Democrats, after all--yet it's worth noting the party of transparency and openness (ahem) is conducting this sham coronation behind the veil of secrecy.

New York Gov. David Paterson's secretive process to select Hillary Rodham Clinton's successor in the U.S. Senate conflicts with his campaign promises to open up government and New York's top regulator of open government laws says it appears to violate state law.

Just days from announcing his choice, Paterson won't identify "about 10" people who he said are in the running to follow Clinton. He won't release the blank questionnaire he sent to each of them looking for background information. He won't turn over the candidate's completed forms. And the public isn't getting any idea how the hopefuls feel about broad or regional public issues _ or even if public policy is being discussed.

"The process is confidential," is the stock answer from his office for the appointment to what has been called the world's most exclusive club.

The list of hopefuls and the questions posed to them in the questionnaire seems to most clearly violate the state's post-Watergate freedom of information laws designed to make sure government officials are accountable to the public. And at least some of the answers by candidates in their background checks should likely be public, too.

"How could it not be public? It's a blank form,"New York, David Paterson said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, the state agency that regulates enforcement of the good-government laws. Since 1976 Freeman, a lawyer, has been the top state employee who advises government and the public on interpretation of the public officers' law.