By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Gov. David Paterson's support nosedived in the past 48 hours, with 42 percent now saying he should resign as damaging details of ethics violations and his involvement in a top aide's domestic abuse case continues to emerge.
Friday's Quinnipiac Poll numbers contrasted sharply to a poll the institute conducted on Monday and Tuesday, when 61 percent of voters thought the governor should stay in office and only 31 percent thought he should resign.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the governor asked staff members to pass a message to the woman allegedly attacked by aide David Johnson: “Tell her the governor wants her to make this go away.”
The State Commission on Public Integrity ruled on Wednesday that Paterson lied under oath about accepting free Yankee World Series tickets from a lobbyist last year.
“Support for Gov. David Paterson erodes with every new headline," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "New York State voters started the week giving the governor the benefit of the doubt 2-1. Now, there is more doubt and less benefit as he clings to a bare plurality of support.”
But the governor currently has no plans to step down.
"I don’t have any plans to resign. I am working on the business of the people of New York City, the most urgent of which is to pass the budget," Paterson said outside his Manhattan office on Friday, NY1 reported.
The governor has scheduled a public meeting in Brooklyn on Monday to discuss the 2010-2011 budget.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he thought the governor should make a "public explanation of his activities" and that he believed the "court of public opinion will weigh in," NY1 reported.
Good government group Common Cause New York joined several other organizations and officials with a statement calling for Paterson's resignation on Friday.
"Given the fiscal and governmental crisis enveloping our state, we at Common Cause/New York have come to the reluctant conclusion that it would be in the best interest of the people of the State of New York for Governor Paterson to step aside as governor," the organization said.
Despite Paterson's crumbling support statewide, Rev. Al Sharpton said after a meeting Thursday night at Sylvia's in Harlem that the majority of black political leaders will continue to back Paterson — for now.
