Just two months ago Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton ascended to the chairmanship of the National Governor's Association, one of the most influential groups in the country when it comes to lobbying members of Congress and garnering attention for issues important to states.

Patton

        The NGA presidency is usually a springboard to a national political stage. Former NGA presidents include:

        • President Bush.

        • Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

        • Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

        • Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, director of the Office of Homeland Security;

        • Former President Clinton.

        Fortune has called the organization “one of Washington's most powerful lobbying organizations due, in large part, to NGA's ability to lead the debate on issues that impact states.”

        Mr. Patton, 65, was positioned to serve as advocate and spokesman for his fellow governors while making the political and fund-raising contacts considered key to the 2004 U.S. Senate race he had planned to make.

        But with a scandal involving sex and allegations of abuse of power swirling back home, Mr. Patton's political star is being diminished on the national stage.

        “Paul Patton is not the most effective person for the nation's governors right now,” said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato, who has been watching the Patton scandal unfold via national media reports.

        “As NGA chairman, you have to testify before dozens of House and Senate committees in Washington on the needs and desires of states,” Mr. Sabato said. “I think it would be difficult for Paul Patton to talk about needs and desires right now.”

        Nonetheless, Mr. Patton, at a Tuesday news conference, said he regards the presidency of the NGA as part of his “duties as governor. And I don't see any change in that regard.”

        Tina Conner, a Western Kentucky nursing home operator, has sued Mr. Patton for sexual harassment, alleging that Mr. Patton gave her business favorable treatment from the state while their relationship was ongoing but that he unleashed state regulators on her after she broke off the two-year affair in 1999.

        In a tearful statement delivered last week, Mr. Patton — who had originally denied the affair — admitted the relationship with Ms. Conner but rebutted the charges he gave her or her business preferential or unfair treatment.

        As head of the governor's association, Mr. Patton is the point man for convincing Congress to pass legislation and fund initiatives favorable to states in general, Mr. Sabato said.

        The association's agenda includes:

        • Lobbying for funds to improve homeland security.

        • Improving school performance.

        • Creation of a national rural development policy.

        • Changes in Medicaid and Medicare.

        NGA is well-known as the one forum in which Republican and Democratic governors put aside partisan concerns and work toward policy goals in tandem.

        The chairmanship of the group also provides an excellent opportunity for a governor to push in Washington for pet projects or federal highway money, said former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, a Woodford County Democrat and horse breeder who served as governor from 1991 to 1995, when Mr. Patton was lieutenant governor.

        But Mr. Patton is likely to find his credibility diminished because of the tawdry nature of the scandal.

        “Any major problem that an elected official has diminishes their clout,” Mr. Jones said in an interview Tuesday. “A lame-duck governor becomes lamer because of this sort of thing.”

        Kentucky U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas is the only Democrat in Kentucky's federal delegation and is in a position to work with Mr. Patton and members of the governor's association.

        Mr. Lucas issued a strong rebuke of Mr. Patton on Tuesday, saying he was “disappointed” in his former University of Kentucky fraternity brother.

        “What the governor did was wrong,” Mr. Lucas said. “Elected officials should be held to the highest moral and ethical standards. The public deserves no less.”

        Press aides for several governors — including Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, the organization's vice chairman — would not comment on Mr. Patton or did not return calls.

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