George Pataki

took office in 2006, everything has gotten worse," Covucci went on. "The only thing that got better was the surge in Iraq, and he opposed it."

In a somewhat desperate attempt to rebrand the candidate (again, shades of McCain), Lalor's campaign filed more than 6,000 signatures with the State Board of Elections to create a new party line called "Energy Security Now."

"That was a way to connect to people and to speak about that issue," said Cuvocci.

It didn't work out. Hall's supporters claimed the petitions didn't comply with state law and filed a lawsuit. Lalor's campaign disputed the charge, but withdrew the petitions anyway, saying the candidate would rather spend money exposing Hall's energy record than on expensive legal proceedings.  read more »

The New York Sun published a story today that quoted ex-politicians and a few semi-retired journalists saying that it would be a terrible thing if the newspaper closed later this month. In his first public interview since resigning, Eliot Spitzer says, "The Sun has been a spectacular addition to the city's political discourse and is one of the finest papers in terms of editing, writing, and analysis that one can find anywhere." (The Sun was one of the few outlets sympathetic towards Mr. Spitzer when he found himself engulfed in scandal in March.)

Also quoted:

• Mario Cuomo
• George Pataki
• John Bolton, former American ambassador to the UN
• Philippe de Montebello, the outgoing director of Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Peter Kann, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal
• Sir Harold Evans, former editor of The London Times
• Peter Osnos, former editor at The Washington Post
• Nat Hentoff, columnist for Village Voice

The paper still, however, needs to find money.  read more »

Former Governor George Pataki has been in something of a cocoon for the past 20 months, staying far away from the public spotlight. But last week at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, he emerged, mostly as a surrogate for Senator John McCain who gave speeches at delegation breakfasts and generally stayed away from New York political issues.

But on the issue of the World Trade Center redevelopment, Mr. Pataki was direct. Speaking to a small gathering of reporters, he responded to a question about whether current delays at the World Trade Center came as a result of mistakes in his administration.  read more »

Here’s former Governor George Pataki, fielding questions from reporters after speaking to the New York delegation at the Republican National Convention this week. He defended Sarah Palin’s preparedness to be vice president, citing the fact that as governor, she was in charge of her state’s national guard.

Later, I asked Pataki to name some decisions she’s made with respect to the national guard that demonstrates her preparedness (a question that's been posed to more than one person, so far without a clear answer). Pataki did not give me a specific example.

Yesterday, Republicans, seemingly at once, started attacking Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer.

"What in God's name is a community organizer?" asked George Pataki at a breakfast.

"What do they do?" Giuliani implored during his speech last night.

And Sarah Palin, in her enthusiastic address, said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

So community organizers are now organizing themselves.

John Raskin of the West Side of Manhattan, founder of Community Organizers of America, has already launched a Web site (Community Organizers Fight Back) demanding that Palin apologize.

Of course, they're not exactly the target demographic for Republicans, especially in New York.  read more »

MINNEAPOLIS--I asked Governor George Pataki just now about a speech he gave yesterday in which he briefly conflated the names Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden and, intentionally or not, got a laugh out of the audience of convention delegates.

"That's totally untrue," he said. "I would never do that."

Asked if he meant that he had not done it purposely, he said, "I didn't do it, period." Then he added, "The word ‘Os’ came out and I stopped. But that's a lot better than Joe Biden or Ted Kennedy did."

MINNEAPOLIS--Both former mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Governor George Pataki had words for Joe Biden at today’s New York delegation lunch.

Giuliani said that Biden’s proposal to devolve Iraq into three separate regions meant that he was “totally oblivious to what that has done to Pakistan and India.”

He then mocked Biden’s gregarious nature: “Joe has a great deal of experience talking, talking, talking.”

Pataki derided Barack Obama’s message of change by saying that, for vice president, Obama “picks Beltway Joe, who has been in Washington for a few hundred years.” He said that the way to achieve reform was to "appoint someone like Governor Palin.”

On a separate note, Pataki, who has been invisible since leaving office and abandoning notions of a bid for national office, declared himself in the game again.

“I’m back,” he said. “I’m getting involved.”

ST. PAUL-Former governor George Pataki doesn't think too much of Barack Obama's post-college, biography-anchoring work in Chicago as a community organizer.

Speaking at the Ohio delegation's breakfast this morning, Pataki went on the attack to dispel talk about G.O.P. vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin's inexperience.

"They talk about her résumé," he said. "You know, she was mayor of a small town."

"He was a community organizer. What in God's name is a community organizer? I don't even know if that's a job," he said. He received laughter and applause.

Pataki, who slipped almost entirely out of public view when he left office 20 months ago, has been on a rather active schedule out here, mostly speaking to individual delegations in support of Senator McCain.

In an email from the New York delegation:

“[We] will hold a luncheon at the Marriott City Center at 30 South 7th Street in Minneapolis, MN tomorrow, Wednesday September 3 beginning at 2:00 pm.

"The keynote speaker will be Rudy Giuliani. Additional speakers will include Governor George Pataki, Brigadier General Jon Reynolds, Dr. John Lehman, Governor Jane Swift and Congressman Luis Fortuno.

"Members of the media are invited to attend."

Which should relieve Representative Peter King somewhat of the responsibility of providing quotes to all the New York reporters covering the delegation.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn.--On Sunday, John McCain called for Republicans to “take off their Republican hats and put on their American hats,” stifling any partisan attacks as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf Coast. Well, that’s over.

At a breakfast speech before the Tennessee and Alaska Republican delegations this morning at the Pawnee Room at the Ramada Inn at the Mall of America, former New York Governor George Pataki—of all people—launched an attack on the Democratic ticket, at one point conflating the name of the opposing party’s candidate with Osama bin Laden’s.

“Do we have anybody from Tennessee here?” Pataki said as he opened his speech.  read more »

With the final speaking schedule for Thursday released, the gubernatorial tally is in: David Paterson was one 15 governors to land a slot at the podium at the Democratic convention this week.

There are 28 Democratic governors in the country, so that puts Paterson in the majority. His time slot (around 3:45 M.S.T Tuesday) was earlier than all but one of them (Governor Chet Culver of swing-state Iowa).

New York is of course no swing state, but there's a long tradition of governors speaking at the national political conventions.

Had Paterson not been given a speaking slot—and the Daily News reported earlier this month that the D.  read more »

One of the central elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan for a sustainable New York City is to improve mass transit and get people out of their cars and into busses and subways. In addition to better and more frequent transit service, the city also needs to ensure that the price of mass transit is kept under control. In the aftermath of the defeat of congestion pricing, we see that mass transit in this region is under greater financial stress than at any time since the fiscal crisis of the mid 1970's.

State and local tax collections are in decline, and the MTA bears the burden of the Pataki philosophy of borrowing to fund transit infrastructure.  read more »

Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.--who is running for re-election on both the Republican ticket and the Democratic one--wants to clear the air about a few things.

He called to say that his August 13 fund-raiser features Democratic State Senate Leader Malcolm Smith and conference co-chair Jeff Klein, but they are not behind the event.

“They are not organizing it,” Diaz told me. “They never organized nothing for me.” Diaz said his paid fund-raiser for the event is Anne Noonan, and that he is calling contributors himself.

Diaz also said of the party, “I’ve been there when they needed me,” and added that he contributed money to help his conference pick up seats.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg just spoke to a room of environmentally minded business people at a daylong event hosted by George Pataki at the New York Athletic Club.

Bloomberg heaped praise on Pataki, referring to the former governor's “remarkable three terms in office.” He described Pataki as “great,” and added that at one point after he become mayor, his goal was just trying to do for New York City what Pataki had done for the state.

The thrust of his speech was that taxing carbon emissions would be a more effective system of limiting pollution than a voluntary cap-and-trade system, which some business folks like.  read more »

Out on the campaign trail, town hall-style meetings are often held in barns, or factories or high school gyms. John McCain's "Town Hall Meeting in New York" on Thursday night took place under the vaunted marble dome and pillars of Federal Hall, where the audience mostly looked like they had wandered in directly from their Wall Street offices. Men wearing dark suits and long power ties and women, most of them blond, surrounded a wooden podium, next to a thigh-high speaker. In the quiet, show's-about-to-begin minutes before McCain arrived, Tony Carbonetti, the former chief political adviser to Rudy Giuliani and a good friend of McCain, twisted in his second row seat to chat with Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman behind him.  read more »

The top Democratic presidential candidates brought out some of their more powerful symbolic stumpers this weekend. To counter Barack Obama’s breathlessly awaited Oprah event in Iowa, Hillary Clinton campaigned with both her generally press-shy daughter Chelsea and her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

Clinton also sent her husband, who arguably has as much star power as Oprah, to South Carolina. In New Hampshire, the Clinton team dispatched the former secretary of the Navy to deliver a speech in Portsmouth.

The New York Times Magazine published a long profile exploring Hillary’s sometimes opaque emotional landscape, while the Washington Post considered her early life.

In a column this morning, Dan Balz wrote of the Clinton candidacy, "all talk of inevitability is gone," and added that no one knows this better than the candidate herself.  read more »

After hisa press conference on Rudy Giuliani and the presidential race in midtown yesterday, I asked former congressman and Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari about the Republican Party here in New York.

“We are struggling for survival--that’s how serious it is,” he told me.

To save it, it’s going to take “strong leadership, people that have access to money. Money is necessary to rebuild the party to where it was, and good candidates. So a lot of recruiting has to go into the future. And it can be brought back.”

But Molinari isn’t too excited about John Catsimatidis, a late addition to the Republican Party and likely 2009 mayoral candidate.

(After the jump.)  read more »

This has a déjà vu quality to it.

On Sunday, there was a story in the Albany Times Union about Joe Bruno’s use of state aircraft. And just a few minutes ago, state Democratic Party Chairwoman June O’Neill issued a statement saying that she is “extremely troubled” by the “gross abuse of the public trust” and demanding “further investigation.”

“We now know that for years Senator Bruno has misused state police aircraft for political fundraising and meetings with special interests seeking the Senator’s assistance,” O’Neill said in a statement.

It’s sort of what happened a few months ago at the start of the Troopergate controversy.

The difference is that the itineraries of Bruno’s travel on which Sunday’s story was based were compiled while George Pataki, a Republican, was governor.

I wonder whether any Republicans will join O’Neill in calling for an investigation into that.

Michael Bloomberg is doing robo-calls for Republican Assembly candidate Greg Camp, who is running in a special election tomorrow against Democrat Micah Kellner.

Below is a script of the call that voters on the East Side have been receiving all week, according to Camp’s campaign.

“Hi, this is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. There’s an important election in your community this Tuesday, June fifth. And I’m calling to tell you about my choice in the race, Greg Camp. Greg Camp has superb qualifications to represent you in the state Assembly. He’s been a banker, a long-time prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office and he was Deputy Director of Criminal Justice for New York State. But most of all, Greg Camp is independent, and that’s what I like best about him. I’m supporting Greg Camp this Tuesday, June 5th and I ask that you do too. Thank you.”

Camp’s endorsement from Bloomberg, like his endorsement from the New York Times, will certainly help him in this district.

Speaking of which, note that there’s no mention of the words “Republican” or “Pataki” anywhere in Bloomberg’s message.

Here's a shot of some of the people biding their time at the Sheraton in midtown as they wait for New York GOP chairman Joe Mondello and most of the state party to announce their endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for President.

Republicans notably, and deliberately, steering clear of today's festivities include Mike Bloomberg, Al D'Amato, George Pataki and former state chair Stephen Minarik aren't particpating.

But who's counting?

Emily Pataki, daughter of the former governor, passed the Bar exam, her family announced today.

Emily came up a bit short on her first try. After the announcement, George Pataki told the AP, “Once she set her mind to it, I had no doubt she would pass.”

Congratulations.

One of the last George Pataki holdovers in the Spitzer administration has been replaced by someone from within the Democratic ranks.

Karen Paikin, who was Pataki’s Jewish liaison and was toiling away for Governor Spitzer was replaced today by Ross Wallenstein, an aide to Rep. Gary Ackerman of Queens and Nassau.
 
Somebody with more information about the capitol’s second floor might be able to confirm if Paikin gets the longest-holdover title. Either way, it’s just one example of Spitzer’s employee recruiting operation.

Wallenstein’s email announcing his move is after the jump.

Eliot Spitzer’s plan to introduce a bill legalizing same-sex marriage later today may not become law. But it may succeed, for the first time, in getting many state legislators to stake out clear, yes-or-no positions on the issue.

“You had a governor, under Pataki, it wasn’t even discussed,” said Assemblywoman Joan Millman of Brooklyn. “Now you have a governor that is openly supporting it. But it’s still going to be a long haul.”

The opposition to same-sex marriage -- or at least the reluctance to address it -- isn't just in the Republican-led state Senate.

I asked Millman, who has been in the Assembly for 10 years, if she knew where Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stood on the issue.

“No, I don’t," she said. "I know he’s been quoted as saying he wants to see where his conference is on this. And I think the conference is going to be all over the lot because some people are very conservative or represent very conservative districts.”

Millman, who supports same-sex marriage, isn't optimistic. “It’s going to be a real sticking point. I don’t know if it’s going to be something that gets through this session,” she said.  read more »

A reader in the city emailed to say the spotted former Governors George Pataki and Bill Weld having lunch together today at the Harvard Club.

In case you were wondering what they're up to.

-- Azi Paybarah

Bill Clinton will be in Westchester this weekend.

In electing Tom DiNapoli, the legislature treated Governor Spitzer the same way they treated Governor Pataki.

DiNapoli's 53rd birthday is on Saturday.

The New York Times, Post and Daily News editorial boards all denounce the legislature.

A rookie Assemblyman who tried complaining about DiNapoli's election was booed.

The state GOP is in bad shape.

At least $100 per vote was spent in Tuesday's special election in Nassau.

Mike Bloomberg said the public advocate and some critics on the City Council "have no experience in doing anything".

Some city officials are eyeing their next race.

Spitzer re-appointed Judith Kaye to another two years on the bench.

Errol Louis says more needs to be done to clean up the bench.

Hillary Clinton has taken a sharp turn to the left on Iraq, says the Wall Street Journal editorial board [subscription]

The New Republic is still debating whether Israel should preemptively attack Iran.

And a neighbor of John Edwards is a big Rudy Giuliani fan.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's one thing that doesn't seem to have changed in Albany after Day 1:

George Pataki's liaison to the Jewish Community, Karen Paikin, was, as of late yesterday, still answering her phone at the governor's Manhattan office.

When she was hired by Pataki, her title was special assistant for community affairs, according to this article.

When I asked her if she was staying on in the new administration, she referred the call to an aide, who said one of the governor's spokespeople would call me back. Then... nothing.

-- Azi Paybarah

So, I'm just thinking out loud, but I wonder how Alan Hevesi must be feeling nowadays with news that former governor George Pataki is granted 24-hour security by Eliot Spitzer.

Hevesi, who was the city comptroller when Rudy Giuliani and Mark Green was tackling mob-ruled businesses in New York City. Hevesi, not very effectively, claimed that necessitated security for not just him, but his wife.

Pataki was governor during the September 11th attacks, and its reasonable to assume whatever threat there was to New York that day extended to New York's leaders. But as Andrew Cuomo famously asserted once, um, Pataki didn't take a lead role that day.

So, in short: Hevesi gets no security and Pataki gets it round the clock.

What do you guys think?

-- Azi Paybarah

Scandals help Eliot Spitzer's push to change Albany.

Andrew Cuomo gets sworn in under Spitzer's shadow.

Cuomo backs an independent review of Spitzer's decision to grant George Pataki 24-hour security.

Errol Louis takes note of Spitzer's use of uplifting images, but wonders if that'll translate to something tangible.

The new head of the MTA will ride all the subways, buses, trains and cross all the bridges and tunnels.

The head of the city's Independent Budget Office gets profiled.

Ben obtains Rudy Giuliani's campaign plans, which say his main problems are his private business, disgraced former aide Bernie Kerik and his positions on social issues.

Giuliani considers changing his role in the consulting company he founded.

And a troop surge will almost certainly be part of the president's plan for Iraq, the WSJ reports.

-- Azi Paybarah

So, the outdoor inauguration is about to begin and most of New York's political dignitaries have filed into a large circular stage area behind the capitol, where they're waiting for Eliot Spitzer. It's standing-room only up front and things have an appropriately chaotic feel.

Meanwhile, there are a number of other indications today that the new governor is off to a fast start. His name has already replaced George Pataki's on the "under-contuction" signs outside the capitol. And he is up and running on the governor's website, where he has detailed the executive orders he plans to sign later today.

One interesting line, given the circumstances under which he's taking office, lays out rules for using state property:

"Individuals who are authorized by their agency or public authority to use a vehicle for personal purposes shall keep records of such use, and the value of such personal use shall be calculated and reported as personal income..."

The other brand new executive orders are here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Just days before George Pataki leaves office, New York City has announced plans to participate in a state-run program to detect Medicaid fraud.

The city's participation in the program was required as part of a federal agreement earlier this year that sent $300 million to NYC annually for health care restructuring here, and it is structured to allow the city to keep a quarter of the money recovered.

The agreement also represents a late -- and lately, rare - political victory for the governor, who will be able to claim the deal as the capstone to a series of health care reforms that took place under his watch. They include putting Medicaid recipients in a more efficiently run managed healthcare system, creating the Medicaid Inspector General's office and helping to organize the Berger Commission on hospital closings.

According to Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo, the state had been in continual negotiations with the city over the past six months in an effort to put the deal together this year.

"We didn't stop working when the election was over and we didn't stop working when he said he wasn't running for re-election," he said.

-- Azi Paybarah

George Pataki will tour the capitol because, astonishingly, he hasn't seen enough of the place yet.

When Pataki leaves, some transportation upgrades won't be finished.

Ben challenges an aspect of today's Times story on Basil and David Paterson.

A lot of tourists have come to New York.

The lawyer monitoring the Independence Party's reorganization in Westchester will cost the IP $350 per hour.

Mystery Pollster looks at President Ford's approval ratings.

Amy Taylor on DMIblog wonders, purposefully, if workplace raids "are part of a larger conservative agenda aimed at creating a climate of fear to undermine union organizing efforts."

Greg Sargent sticks stubbornly to the notion that the war in Iraq doesn't help President Bush.

The Economist measures your happiness.

And pictured above is Mike Bloomberg with a very small bridge.

-- Azi Paybarah

At a press conference having to do with a mental health bill, Governor Pataki addressed the Hevesi resignation. "I'm very concerned about the operations of the comptroller's office...I'm concerned about the interim [before a replacement is appointed], what will happen." The governor also said he wasn't sure who exactly will sign the next round of state paychecks.

Pataki drew a contrast between Hevesi's admitted wrongdoing and the allegations currently swirling around the man standing behind him, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. "I've said time and again: I have confidence in Senator Bruno," the governor said. "I have confidence in the system... I expect come January 3, Senator Bruno will be the majority leader."

The vote of confidence is notable, in that the governor's initial statement about the case--"Hopefully, the senator has done everything right, and that will be what the conclusion is"--was read by some to be less-than-supportive. Obviously, everyone knows they're not horseback-riding buddies.

After the press conference was done, reporters descended on Bruno. He said of the hoopla about the FBI investigation into his business practices:

"This is more of a media event, and when I indicated we were being totally cooperative, and that there was an inquiry, and that I'm letting the Feds do their work, and they're diligent enough and I have been elected by the people, by my conference to govern. And I would appreciate the press, if they would just give me an opportunity, objectively, and fairly, to govern."

UPDATE: To be a bit more specific, the press conference had to do with Timothy's Law, which would require that insurance companies cover various serious mental illnesses, particularly in children. It's a shame that got overshadowed.

-- Azi Paybarah

Joe Bruno at a press conference with Governor Pataki this afternoon. Is it just me, or has he shrunk?

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's the formal announcement that the new state GOP executive director is Allison Coccia, the former political director of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. (She's third from the left in a picture from this website.)

The other person up for the job was John Haggerty, an experienced Republican operative who has worked with Mike Bloomberg, George Pataki and Jeanine Pirro.

Haggerty, along with his brother Bart, has waged a war against Queens GOP leader Serph Maltese with jihad-like intensity. So maybe it was just too much of a stretch for a state leader to hire someone intent on ousting an established county leader.

But new party chair Joe Mondello hinted at another possible reason in a statement announcing the hiring of Coccia in which he said he was happy to have someone "who isn't necessarily wedded to the way things have been done in the past."

Party spokesman Tony Santino told me that the line was not, repeat, not a reference to George Pataki or anyone else in the current party establishment, but "simply a recognition that we had some tough times in the Republican Party in New York State and the chairman is looking to do some new and innovative things."

-- Azi Paybarah

Hillary Clinton is invited to speak to Democrats in New Hampshire.

Hotline looks at Hillary's faith, and notes she's part of not one but two conservative prayer groups.

Mitt Romney may announce his candidacy January 8th.

New Jersey is a step closer to establishing civil unions.

Katie Lapp resigned from her seat on the MTA.

Empire Zone has some interesting video of what happened to some of the bullets in the Sean Bell shooting.

George Pataki started what may be his last Red Room press conference late, and blamed Albany's inaction on the Assembly. Just like old times.

Potomac Flacks looks at the press officers of prospective 2008 candidates.

Pataki's chief fund-raiser will join the WTC Memorial Foundation next month, which would be weird if he were actually planning to run for president in 2008.

And above is Hillary, who only looks like she's ready to announce.

-- Azi Paybarah

As George Pataki attempts to hammer out his final deals with the state legislature, here's a helpful reminder of the state of their relations in the closing days.

From Assemblyman Dick Gottfried the other day at a Drum Major Institute panel about prescription drug costs:

"Pataki's TV ads for Child Health Plus is like Japan taking credit for peace in the Pacific... He fought us tooth and nail."

More highlights from the DMI event are here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Hillary Clinton acknowledged she's thinking about running but said she won't decide until after January 1.

George Pataki's pick for a job on the Public Service Commission, Nick Spano, doesn't want it.

Eliot Spitzer will not use his family fortune to fund future campaigns.

Ben notes that the mayor didn't put a meeting he had with John McCain on his public schedule.

Chuck Bennett is curious about TWU's mass membership meeting.

The new state GOP chairman met major donors at the 101 Club in Manhattan and has been busy canceling consulting contracts.

Rick Santorum may go to work at Fox.

Giuliani Blogger has an interesting poll.

Mole333 reminisces fondly about Major Owens.

Gatemouth looks ahead at Spitzer's first day in office, and offers some advice.

And above is the flag outside City Hall, which flew at half mast today in tribute to the city sanitation worker who died over the weekend after being tossed from his truck.

-- Azi Paybarah

New York magazine looks at Alan Hevesi and his complicated personal situation.

At the same time, Hevesi may benefit from a legal argument written by a Republican state Senator.

Time magazine says, "By trying to become the perfect candidate for the primaries, McCain could be creating difficulties for himself in a general election."

Adam Nagourney wondered over the weekend if America is "more likely to vote for a woman or an African-American for president."

George Pataki will decide whether to run for president next year.

Eliot Spitzer's mettle may be tested over the issue of raising salaries for state lawmakers.

New York Times editors like the idea of studying congestion pricing.

The Sun editors are weary of the lame-duck session of the legislature.

Ben looks inside Barack Obama's meeting with George Soros and other high-end contributors.

And there's a new cover photo and introduction to Hillary's book, It Takes a Village.

-- Azi Paybarah