Upstate Town Halls
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- January
- 5
IInstead of an upstate State of the State address like his predecessor did last year, Gov. Da
vid Paterson is choosing to hold town-hall style meetings across the region.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last March, was the first governor to hold two State of the State addresses: the traditional one in Albany and then one in Buffalo a week later. The intent was to offer specific initiatives that would help upstate, instead of folding those ideas into the traditional speech.
But Paterson’s aides said the town-hall approach will give residents an opportunity to ask questions and interact with the governor on the ideas he lays out in the State of the State address, which is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday at the state Capitol.
“He’s going to reach a lot of New Yorkers by traveling around the state and talking to them in a town-hall style,” said spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein. “He’s going to be able to hear their concerns directly and deliver his message of the State of the State to as wide a group and as many regions as possible.”
Paterson committed Monday to doing at least four town-hall meetings across upstate, starting Sunday in Watertown. Other events are tentatively scheduled for Feb. 4 in Binghamton, Feb. 11 in Rochester, Feb. 12 at the state University College at Geneseo and Feb. 18 in Buffalo. Times and locations have not been finalized.
Paterson has liked the town-hall approach. He held ones in White Plains and Syracuse in November.
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on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
