Bill Lynch Provides Advice and Aides to David Paterson

I just got off the phone with Bill Lynch, a Democratic consultant and adviser to incoming Governor David Paterson.

Lynch, who helped elect David Dinkins to one term as mayor and has been a power broker for decades in New York politics, said that right now he is “advising and helping David wherever he needs help. Mostly, you know, making recommendations, like I’ve always done. I was David’s first campaign manager, and helped him when he became [minority leader] in the senate, and was supportive when he became lieutenant governor, so I want to be supportive now.”

When I asked Lynch whether Paterson could keep any of Spitzer’s aides who are associated with Troopergate, Lynch said he wasn't in a position to say.

“I can‘t speak to that. You got to talk to someone a lot more closer to that operation. That has not been me,” Lynch said.

When asked which positions have to be filled immediately, and which can wait until after the budget deadline of April 1, Lynch said, “I really can’t answer that. I think you got to get his secretary to make sure the trains run on time. I think he’s got a very good chief of staff right now, Charles O’Byrne. And he’s plucked one of our guys, out of my firm, to go work for him, Luther Smith.”