Governor Paterson, who spoke to reporters after serving as Grand Marshal of the African-American Day Parade in Harlem, is not planning to drop his bid for re-election, despite what are reported to be calls from the White House to step down.

Paterson did not deny earlier reports that he's getting pressure from the White House to step aside which a White House source tells the Times was approved by Obama. He's still planning to attend tomorrow's Obama invitation-only speech at Hudson Valley Community College. Andrew Cuomo is also expected to attend.

In the wake of the Times report, NYC Mayor Bloomberg didn't quite not endorse Paterson's candidacy while promising to stay out of the race.

Meanwhile, the calculation that Rudolph Giuliani will be the Republican candidate was complicated slightly when former Hillary Clinton opponent Rick Lazio announced his plans to announce his candidacy for governor.

Lazio, a former Long Island congressman and D'Amato protege, has left open the possibility that he won't continue his run if Giuliani chooses to jump into the race. He won the nomination of his party in his Senate race after Giuliani gave up plans to run for what he said at the time were health reasons.

In a phone interview with the AP, Lazio said he was "uniquely qualified" to be governor by his close ties to investment banking.