Continuing Healthy Steps and Stepping into the Role of First Lady
Michelle Paterson diagnoses state health care and her husband’s low poll numbers
Fri, 22 May 2009 13:33:00
First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson can effortlessly rattle off statistics about childhood obesity. One in four children are overweight, she says. One in three in communities of color. More kids today have an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes or cardiovascular problems than ever before.
For Paterson, who also works as an executive at EmblemHealth, a statewide health insurer, waging a public fight against childhood obesity combines her professional expertise with what she sees as a major health crisis facing the state.
“We have to start doing something to turn this around,” she said.
She started the “Healthy Steps” program while her husband was still lieutenant governor, challenging students in cities around the state to make exercise and healthy eating a regular part of their routine. In May, children who excelled at the challenge were invited to have lunch with Paterson at the Executive Mansion. She also recently testified before a House subcommittee on health about the need to adopt the program nationwide.
“I believe we can do better,” she told the legislative panel. “We need federal legislation that raises the nutrition standards of all food and beverages available in our schools.”
Her role in publicizing the effects of childhood obesity have been successful so far, said Assembly Health Committee chair Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan).
“It’s easy to dismiss efforts like that as window dressing,” Gottfried said. “But her participation has helped focus public attention on the program, which it needs and deserves, and has really energized people.”
Still, Paterson said, she steers clear of commenting on the decisions of her husband.
“I don’t really have a role in shaping health policy,” she said.
She does see her work as first lady as an extension of her husband’s efforts to increase awareness of exercise and healthy eating. Though his highest profile attempt, the proposed tax on soda and sugary drinks, has fizzled—with the governor confessing he saw the idea less as a serious revenue-generating proposal than an attempt to raise awareness of obesity—Michelle Paterson thinks the tax could make a comeback.
“That didn’t pass, but I think that’s a very important initiative,” she said. “I think my husband did absolutely the right thing by lifting awareness around it.”
In the first year of her husband’s term, Michelle Paterson appeared to eschew the spotlight. Unlike her predecessor, Silda Wall Spitzer, Paterson seemed uneasy with the public attention, preferring to focus on her job and her family.
She admits that her husband’s tanking poll numbers are very much on her mind. But Paterson said her public push to raise awareness of childhood health is not some roundabout attempt to improve the governor’s image. That task is his, she said.
“Right now he’s been swamped with the budget and then the MTA negotiations,” she said. “But I think once he gets out and starts talking about his record and what he’s doing, instead of having other people interpret it, I think that people will see that David is an excellent governor.”
She has endured her share of criticism as well. She was publicly picked on for sending out an e-mail blast using her EmblemHealth address pleading for support for her husband in the wake of his botched Senate appointment. In the months since, Paterson said she has continued to feel protective of her husband’s image, especially as the governor’s approval ratings fall to new lows, but said she does not feel the need to publicly denounce his detractors.
“I feel like a lot of stuff that’s being reported today about David is to shape public perception [and] to sell newspapers,” she said. “It’s not actually telling the public what’s going on, which I feel is a disservice to everybody.”
But she is careful not to let her personal feelings get out too much.
“I wouldn’t say I feel a need to defend him,” Paterson said. “I feel a need to tell the facts, and put the facts out. And the facts speak for themselves.”
In the meantime, Paterson says she is determined on keeping public attention on her work on childhood obesity and trying to not add too much to her portfolio.
“Right now, I think childhood obesity is a big chunk, and I don’t want to offer myself to too many things, because then the message gets lost,” she said.
As for the rest of the governor’s time in office, his wife says she will continue pushing those issues she feels are important. But fortunately, she said, she does not have to push too hard to get her husband’s attention on the ideas that are close to her heart.
“David is very attuned about health issues,” she said. “He’s very savvy when it comes to that.”
--
Above: Photo by Andrew Schwartz
For Paterson, who also works as an executive at EmblemHealth, a statewide health insurer, waging a public fight against childhood obesity combines her professional expertise with what she sees as a major health crisis facing the state.
“We have to start doing something to turn this around,” she said.
She started the “Healthy Steps” program while her husband was still lieutenant governor, challenging students in cities around the state to make exercise and healthy eating a regular part of their routine. In May, children who excelled at the challenge were invited to have lunch with Paterson at the Executive Mansion. She also recently testified before a House subcommittee on health about the need to adopt the program nationwide.
“I believe we can do better,” she told the legislative panel. “We need federal legislation that raises the nutrition standards of all food and beverages available in our schools.”
Her role in publicizing the effects of childhood obesity have been successful so far, said Assembly Health Committee chair Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan).
“It’s easy to dismiss efforts like that as window dressing,” Gottfried said. “But her participation has helped focus public attention on the program, which it needs and deserves, and has really energized people.”
Still, Paterson said, she steers clear of commenting on the decisions of her husband.
“I don’t really have a role in shaping health policy,” she said.
She does see her work as first lady as an extension of her husband’s efforts to increase awareness of exercise and healthy eating. Though his highest profile attempt, the proposed tax on soda and sugary drinks, has fizzled—with the governor confessing he saw the idea less as a serious revenue-generating proposal than an attempt to raise awareness of obesity—Michelle Paterson thinks the tax could make a comeback.
“That didn’t pass, but I think that’s a very important initiative,” she said. “I think my husband did absolutely the right thing by lifting awareness around it.”
In the first year of her husband’s term, Michelle Paterson appeared to eschew the spotlight. Unlike her predecessor, Silda Wall Spitzer, Paterson seemed uneasy with the public attention, preferring to focus on her job and her family.
She admits that her husband’s tanking poll numbers are very much on her mind. But Paterson said her public push to raise awareness of childhood health is not some roundabout attempt to improve the governor’s image. That task is his, she said.
“Right now he’s been swamped with the budget and then the MTA negotiations,” she said. “But I think once he gets out and starts talking about his record and what he’s doing, instead of having other people interpret it, I think that people will see that David is an excellent governor.”
She has endured her share of criticism as well. She was publicly picked on for sending out an e-mail blast using her EmblemHealth address pleading for support for her husband in the wake of his botched Senate appointment. In the months since, Paterson said she has continued to feel protective of her husband’s image, especially as the governor’s approval ratings fall to new lows, but said she does not feel the need to publicly denounce his detractors.
“I feel like a lot of stuff that’s being reported today about David is to shape public perception [and] to sell newspapers,” she said. “It’s not actually telling the public what’s going on, which I feel is a disservice to everybody.”
But she is careful not to let her personal feelings get out too much.
“I wouldn’t say I feel a need to defend him,” Paterson said. “I feel a need to tell the facts, and put the facts out. And the facts speak for themselves.”
In the meantime, Paterson says she is determined on keeping public attention on her work on childhood obesity and trying to not add too much to her portfolio.
“Right now, I think childhood obesity is a big chunk, and I don’t want to offer myself to too many things, because then the message gets lost,” she said.
As for the rest of the governor’s time in office, his wife says she will continue pushing those issues she feels are important. But fortunately, she said, she does not have to push too hard to get her husband’s attention on the ideas that are close to her heart.
“David is very attuned about health issues,” she said. “He’s very savvy when it comes to that.”
--
Above: Photo by Andrew Schwartz
