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George Pataki

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George Elmer Pataki (born June 24, 1945) is the current Governor of New York State and has held that office since January 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party and is a Roman Catholic. Pataki has never lost a competitive political race to date, and is frequently mentioned as a contender for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination; a website has been set up in support of that possibility.

George Pataki
57th Governor of New York
In office
1995–present
LieutenantBetsy McCaughey Ross, 1995-99
Mary Donohue, 1999- present
Preceded byMario Cuomo
Personal details
BornJune 24, 1945
Peekskill, New York
Political partyRepublican
SpouseLibby Pataki
ProfessionPolitician

History and campaigns

Pataki was born in the city of Peekskill, New York in Westchester County to Louis P. Pataki (whose parents were Hungarian immigrants) and Margaret Lagana (of half Italian and half Irish descent). He graduated from Yale University, where he was an active member of the Yale Political Union in 1967, and is a 1970 graduate of Columbia Law School. After graduating, he took up private law practice in the state, which he maintained until his gubernatorial election in 1994.

Pataki began his political career with his 1981 election as Mayor of Peekskill. He served in that role until 1984, when he won his seat in the New York State Assembly. After winning re-election three times, Pataki challenged the incumbent Republican State Senator Mary Goodhue in 1992. The ensuing primary battle gained interest within New York State Republican circles; Goodhue was at the time an established politico, the only female Republican State Senator, and credited herself with launching Pataki's career in Albany, having hired him as staff. Pataki won the seat.

It is around this time that Pataki is believed to have gained the favor of high-ranking Republican members, including then-U.S. Senator from New York Al D'Amato and then-Republican Party Chairman William Powers. It was with their blessing and Arthur J. Finkelstein as his campaign manager that he ran for Governor in 1994 against three-term incumbent Governor Mario Cuomo. Cuomo was a nationally known figure who had been widely discussed as the Democratic candidate for the 1992 Presidential election before the emergence of Bill Clinton. In campaigning, Pataki mostly stayed within the lines of the state party's historical Rockefeller Republican philosophy with a platform built to sap Cuomo's strength in suburban sections of the state. This platform included planks emphasizing conservative solutions to problems such as unemployment and violent crime, but avoided national controversies on issues such as abortion that had been considered settled within New York.

Largely keeping to this strategy, Pataki had two successful re-election campaigns in 1998 and 2002. Among the few changes from his first election, the most noticeable was a change in running mates, ousting Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross, who proved to be controversial once in office, in favor of upstater Mary O. Donohue, a former educator and New York State Supreme Court justice from Rensselaer County, in 1998. He defeated the Democratic candidate Peter Vallone, Sr. 54%-33%, and in 2002 received 49% of the vote while Democrat Carl McCall received 33% and independent candidate Tom Golisano received 14%.

Pataki and his wife, Libby Pataki, now have four children, and their family home is in Garrison, New York, a suburb of New York City.

Like most New York politicians, he has a secondary office in Manhattan, while there are other state buildings across Upstate New York with similar purposes.

Governorship

During the first years of Pataki's administration, he began to institute the major spending cuts which he has advocated for most of his career. In 1999, Governor Pataki signed into law comprehensive health care legislation that provided health insurance coverage, under Family Health Plus, to lower income adults who do not have health insurance through their employers.

In July 2000, Pataki's name surfaced on the short list to be the running mate for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, along with the names of Governor John Engler of Michigan, Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, and former American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole. Bush eventually selected the man who was in charge of scouting vice presidential candidates, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

In 2003 Pataki made a controversial budget proposal in which he proposed several tax cuts, despite the state's rising deficits. He also made cuts in education and health care funding which, some say, may close emergency rooms and turn non-profit hospitals into for-profits. Pataki argued that new taxes would drive businesses out-of-state, reducing jobs, further compounding the deficit problem.

In August 2004 Pataki introduced President Bush at the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. A year prior, Pataki had boasted Bush would carry the state in the 2004 elections; Bush lost New York 58-40 to John Kerry. Later, on November 22, 2004, he named the living former presidents honorary members of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Inc., an independent non-profit corporation chartered to create a memorial to the victims and rescue workers of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center site.

Pataki has always been liberal on social issues but by his third term many social conservatives simmered over his continued support of abortion as well as his heavy lobbying in favor of a gay rights bill which had languished in the state Senate for many years due to the opposition of Senate Leader, Joseph Bruno, from conservative upstate Rensselaer County. In 2003, Bruno finally gave in; the bill passed the senate and was signed into law by Pataki. In the 2004 elections, not only did Republicans' hope of Bush carrying the state fail to materialize, but Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, won 71% in his reelection bid when he trounced the Republican nominee, Assemblyman Howard Mills. In addition, Democrats picked up one Congressional seat, gained seats in the state legislature, and in many local races across the state. Many Republicans, such as Congressman Peter T. King, blamed Pataki and what they viewed as his aimlessness as causing the rout. Pataki replaced some advisors and the state party replaced their chairman. In 2005, Pataki enjoyed some positive publicity when the state passed its first on-time budget in twenty-one years, but he continued to suffer from low approval ratings, as well as Republican losses in local races that November, especially on Long Island, which was key to Pataki's three victories.

On July 27, 2005, Pataki announced his intention not to seek a fourth term as governor in 2006. Along with several meetings with donors, trips to states important for their primaries, and an August 2005 veto of a bill that would allow sale of the morning-after pill, this fuels speculation that Pataki will seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, although, his "morning-after" pill veto notwithstanding, he may still be too liberal for the party's grassroots conservatives to win the nomination.

Pataki suffered a burst appendix and had an emergency appendectomy on February 16, 2006 at Hudson Valley Hospital Center. He was transferred to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center from which he was discharged on March 6. Doctors advised rest at home which for conditions like his may last for a month. On the week of March 20-24 he appeared at a public press conference looking fit and thinner to comment on the progress of the annual budget and the recent Campaign for Fiscal Equity CFE ruling from the New York state court.

Cabinet Members

As of February 2006

  • Director of Aging: Neil E. Lane
  • Acting Commissioner of Agriculture: Patrick Brennan
  • Superintendent of Banks: Diana Taylor
  • Director of the Budget: John F. Cape
  • Chief Information Officer: Michael R. Mittleman
  • Commissioner of Children and Family Services: John A. Johnson
  • Civil Service Commissioner President: Daniel E. Wall
  • Commissioner of Correctional Services: Glenn Goord
  • Director of Criminal Justice Services: Chauncey Parker
  • Commissioner of Empire State Development: Charles Gargano
  • Commissioner of Environmental Conservation: Denise Sheehan
  • Commissioner of General Services: Daniel Hogan
  • Director of Small Cities: Glen King
  • Commissioner of Health: Antonia Novello
  • Director of Homeland Security: James McMahon
  • Commissioner of Human Rights: Michelle Donaldson
  • Superintendent of Insurance: Howard Mills
  • Commissioner of Mental Health: Sharon Carpinello
  • Commissioner of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities: Thomas Maul
  • Commissioner of Motor Vehicles: Nancy Naples
  • Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation: Bernadette Castro
  • Public Service Commissioner Chairman: William Flynn
  • Racing and Wagering Board Chairwoman: Cheryl Ritchko-Buley
  • Acting Secretary of State: Frank Milano
  • Tax Appeals Tribunal President: Charlie Nesbitt
  • Commissioner of Taxation and Finance: Andrew Eristoff
  • Commissioner of Transportation: Thomas Madison
  • Director of Veterans Affairs: George Basher

Cultural references

The last name of Hey Arnold! character Helga Pataki is taken from the governor's name.

Electoral history

GOP State Tickets Pataki Ran On

1994

1998

2002

  • "New York Governor George E. Pataki" - Government website.
  • "GeorgePataki.com" - Campaign website of Friends of Pataki.
  • Marlin, George (Oct/Nov 2003). "New York's Republicans Stumble". {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)
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