Little Bargaining Power Against a Hated Governor

Governor Paterson of New York, who stepped in to fill Spitzer's shoes, is now about as popular as a summer cold.  In part, this is because he was never meant for prime-time; he's a ticket rounder without much political charisma.  But he's also been handed a really lousy hand.  All states are suffering in this downturn, but New York has spent twenty years getting used to the lavish spending that taxes on financial salaries enabled.  If you try to take it away, they feel that their civil rights are being violated--and they take their righteous rage out on the nearest politician to hand.

One of the groups he's crossed is the public sector unions, from whom he is demanding a 3% pay cut (in line with what the non-union workers have taken).  The union has responded with a furious public service campaign--but to no avail, because Paterson's ratings are so low that even a vicious negative ad run can't drive them any lower.   I expect the anti-tax groups are having the same problem.