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George Pataki
GOPers For Cuomo Lands First Elected Officials
Jul 15th - 4:27 pm
AG Andrew Cuomo landed the endorsements of his first two GOP elected officials today during his second RV tour stop in Mahopac.
Mike McKeon, former communications director for ex-Gov. George Pataki, just called in to report that Putnam County Executive Bob Bondi and Town of Carmel Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt endorsed the Democratic gubernatorial designee.
McKeon is heading up GOPers for Cuomo – a move with which the former governor is none too pleased. He’s on hand in Mahopac, but won’t be joining the AG for his entire upstate tour.
RIP Brad Race
Jul 8th - 9:27 am
A veteran of the Pataki administration just called with some sad news, informing me that the former governor’s first chief of staff, Brad Race, has died after a long battle with cancer.
Race served with Pataki from when he first took office in January 1995 to 2002. His tenure spanned two terms, which is unusal for someone in the chief of staff/secretary post – a job that essentially requires one to act a combination traffic cop and gatekeeper to the governor’s office.
Since Pataki’s management style was very hands-off, particularly later in his 16 12 years in office, serving as his chief of staff was a demanding gig. (Race is pictured here on the right with the man who succeeded him, John Cahill).
Race and Pataki both worked at the law firm Dewey Ballantine prior to Pataki’s entry into politics. Race worked there from 1970-1981 and then rejoined the firm in February of 2002 after he left his government job. In 1981, Race joined the firm of Seward and Kissel where he practiced until 1994 (the year Pataki was elected governor, defeating Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo).
Race was a member of Pataki’s inner circle in the early years, along with Patricia Woodworth, budget director; Michael Finnegan, counsel; and Zenia Mucha, communications director.
Pataki Challenges Daschle To ‘ObamaCare’ Debate
Jun 15th - 1:54 pm
Former Gov. George Pataki, who’s banking on opposition to the new health care reform law as his ticket into the 2012 presidential election, today issued a debate challenge to former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was just tapped along with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s wife, Victoria, to head up the Obama administration’s defense of the measure.
“Recent press reports indicate that you are co-chairing what appears to be a well funded, albeit desperate, effort by Washington’s liberal establishment to try yet again to sell the public on something they know they don’t want and they know is wrong,” Pataki wrote in an open letter to Daschle, which was provided to reporters via press release.
“The American people would be well served to hear us debate your unfettered support of the nationalization of our health care system, and to hear just how wrong you are. I welcome the opportunity to debate you anytime and anyplace about ObamaCare.”
After taking a pass on challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand despite the fact that multiple polls showed him to be the Republican most likely to defeat her, Pataki launched a national PAC – Revere America – to spearhead a national petition drive calling for repeal of the health care reform bill.
Pataki launched his effort in Boston on April 18th – the 235th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s Ride. So far, he has collected more than 125,000 signatures.
The full text of Pataki’s letter to Daschle appears after the jump.
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Levy’s Almost-LG
Jun 4th - 3:51 pm
On the eve of the GOP convention at which the fate of his gubernatorial campaign would be (negatively) decided, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy had settled on an LG contender but wouldn’t reveal that person’s identity until after he was – or, as it turned out – wasn’t placed on the ballot.
Multiple sources confirm Levy’s pick was Chris Jacobs, a Republican Buffalo businessman who was former Gov. George Pataki’s last state Secretary of State.
One source with knowledge of Levy’s LG search cautioned that Jacobs was merely on the “short list,” but also did not deny that a press release announcing his selection had been typed up and was ready to go in the event that the party-switching county executive got the 50-percent-plus-one he needed for the Wilson Pakula.
“You can name almost every viable person in the state and (Levy) probably vetted that person,” the source insisted. “Not all of them said ‘no.’”
Many of them did, however, as I reported late last month.
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Pataki Mails For Lazio
Jun 4th - 12:28 pm
A reader forwarded this fundraising letter sent out by former Gov. George Pataki on behalf of gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio in advance of the GOP convention that condemns the government he used to lead as a “national embarrassment.”
(Sadly, I only have Page 1 of the two-page missive, but it’s enough to give you the basic idea).
Pataki, who endorsed Lazio but was not on hand at the convention to see his preferred candidate become the party’s designee, lauds the former Long Island congressman, calling him a “new leader with new ideas,” adding:
“The future for New York we had hoped to leave our children and grandchildren has been undone by the actions and failures of Albany.”
“The Albany politicians have turned their backs on us, and now we must turn out backs on them.”
First, however, the former governor touts his own recording in office, saying he “employed pro-growth economic policies and cut taxes.” (He doesn’t mention that spending increased exponentially on his watch, with the exception of his first budget).
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Marist: No Support For President Pataki (Updated)
May 10th - 11:10 am
Former Gov. George Pataki has launched a national PAC and is traveling the country to call for the repeal so-called “Obamacare” – a move widely viewed as an effort to raise his name recognition in advance of a possible run for the White House in 2012.
But the Putnam County Republican would perhaps have been better served to set his sights a little lower – maybe opting for that challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand – in light of the results of today’s Marist poll.
Seventy-one percent of New Yorkers polled said Pataki shouldn’t run for president – including 80 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of so-called blanks.
However, Pataki can seek solace in the fact that he remains popular in the state he led for 12 years. Thirty-three percent of voters said he is the best governor for New York in recent decades, compared to 31 percent who picked the man he ousted in 1994, former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Scandal-scarred former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (9 percent) beat both his successor, Gov. David Paterson (3 percent), and one of his predecessors, ex-Gov. Hugh Carey (4 percent). No one opted for the late former Gov. Malcolm Wilson.
Update: YNN’s Curtis Schick sat down with Marist Pollster Lee Miringoff to further explain the latest numbers.
Pataki Plays Hardball
May 7th - 7:10 pm
Former Governor George Pataki continued to make his rounds on the national media circuit today, attacking President Obama’s policy decisions relating to homeland security.
During the appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Pataki was asked to respond to recent criticism by Conservative Talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who in recent days has referred to the Obama Administration as “a regime that is Nazi like.”
Matthews asked Pataki if there was anything that Limbaugh said that he didn’t agree with. Pataki responded by saying, “I do not think this regime in anyway resembles Nazism.” Matthews quickly jumped in and asked him if it was a regime, and Pataki backed away from the word regime. He then went on to say,
“This administration does not in my mind resemble in any way a Nazi government. This administration has put in policies that I fundamentally disagree with, but that is part of the Democratic system.”
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Pataki Doesn’t (Much) Begrudge Cuomo ‘Stupid’ ’02 Remark
May 7th - 4:43 pm
Former Gov. George Pataki, who might very well be the most disciplined New York pol in recent memory when it comes to staying on message, largely declined to take the bait this morning when asked by radio host Curtis Sliwa if he’s still angry with AG Andrew Cuomo for his “hold the coat” remark during the 2002 campaign.
The comment, in which Cuomo accused Pataki of playing a bit part in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, serving as little more than a coat-holder for Mayor Rudy Giuliani, came during a wide-ranging interview with reporters during an upstate campaign bus tour. It was widely viewed as a major gaffe by Cuomo, who was at the time making a long-shot run for governor against Pataki and the Democratic Party’s preferred candidate, then-state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. (Cuomo ended up dropping out one week before the primary).
“You know Curtis, you can’t take it personally,” Pataki said. “Politics is rough in general, and it’s certainly even rougher when it comes to New York. And, you know, people say stupid things, and if they say them twice, then you react a little differently. But, you know, if I got angry at everybody who said something that I didn’t agree with or that I could have taken as a personal insult in the course of the campaign there would be a lot of people on a list.”
Pataki also dodged questions about his former LG, Betsy McCaughey, whom he dumped unceremoniously off the ticket in favor of Mary Donohue in advance of his second re-election bid. McCaughey returned the favor by switching parties and trying to run against him as a Democrat. She lost the primary to then-NYC Council Speaker Peter Vallone, but ran on the Liberal Party line in the general election, which she and Vallone both lost to Pataki.
The former governor was far less reticent when it came to criticizing the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policies in the wake of the foiled Times Square car bomb. He’s been doing a lot of that lately.
Pataki Slams Obama On Terrorism
May 5th - 12:00 pm
The foiled Times Square car bombing has provided a platform for former Gov. George Pataki, who took to the airwaves on MSNBC this morning to slam the Obama administration’s terror-fighting tactics.
Pataki pretty much stuck to the GOP line, criticizing the president for entitling “enemy combatants” to Miranda warnings, enabling them to “lawyer up and not talk about what they know”; and going along with US AG Eric Holder’s decision to (so far) hold the KSM trial in a civilian court in NYC.
“I think all of these are steps that have weakened our security and have made events – tragic possible events like last Saturday night in Times Square – much harder to prevent,” Pataki said.
Pataki did say it’s appropriate to make distinctions between non-citizen terror suspects and US citizens like Faisal Shahzad, who has admitted to his role in the Times Square plot, adding: “The Christmas Day bomber should not have been given the Miranda warnings…he is an enemy combatant, a terrorist without those rights.”
The former governor recently took a pass on running against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to start a national effort to repeal the new health care reform law – a move widely interpreted to mean that he is eyeing another White House run.
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