Despite basement-level approval ratings and calls for him to step aside in 2010, New York Gov. David A. Paterson is moving forward with his election campaign.

Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who ascended to the top post after Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008, named a campaign manager for his 2010 race on Thursday. Richard Fife, president of RJF Communications Inc. and a senior New York adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, will take the helm of the listing Paterson ship.

Fife also managed New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney‘s aborted Senate run against Kirsten Gillibrand, whom Paterson appointed earlier this year to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Paterson also has a campaign spokeswoman, Tracy Sefl.