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Andrea Bernstein

George’s Lap: Pataki Ready, Sauntering In

On the first day of the last full week of the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had nothing but praise for Governor George Pataki. “In seven years of serving when I was the Mayor and he was the Governor, he was the person that you could go to that would understand the problems Read More

Hevesi Returns In Comeback Run For Comptroller

A year ago, Alan Hevesi’s career was over. A year ago, he was the man who came in a distant fourth in the Democratic Mayoral race-after being the early favorite. A year ago, he was supposed to do what losing political candidates do, which is take a lucrative private-sector job that traded on his 30 Read More

An Angry Pataki, His Race Askew, Rides Teachers

Not long after his humiliating defeat on the Independence Party line-the first-ever defeat of his political career-Governor George Pataki stood before a group of school teachers from lower Manhattan and made his strongest remarks to date attacking a June appeals-court ruling that said an eighth-grade education is enough for New York City schoolchildren. “I totally Read More

Near Ground Zero, Paternal Pataki Reaps Dividends

Former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo may have dismissed George Pataki as nothing more than a coat-holder for the real heroes on Sept. 11, but New Yorkers-many of whom saw the carnage and destruction firsthand-clearly have kinder things to say about their Governor.

Pollsters and political insiders have found that city residents are more optimistic about Read More

Mulrow Trying to Block Comeback by Alan Hevesi

On a late-August morning three weeks before Primary Day, Bill Mulrow, underdog candidate for State Comptroller, surrounded himself with state union leaders in a nondescript conference room at the state A.F.L.-C.I.O. headquarters in Albany. Mr. Mulrow pulled apart his campaign schedule to be at this event, a press conference announcing the endorsement of the 2.3-million-member Read More

Democrats Wait on Eliot Spitzer, Imminent ‘It Boy’

Standing before a dozen television cameras, demurely accepting recognition as financial officers from 17 states said they will adopt the anti-conflict-of-interest principles known as the “Spitzer principles,” State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced nothing less than a “revolution” in the embattled world of high finance.

“Institutional shareholders in the form of state pension funds are Read More

Forgotten Lady: Pataki’s Partner is No McCaughey

Mary Donohue, the Lieutenant Governor of New York, is delivering a speech and looking a bit too clean for the grittiness of downtown Brooklyn, what with her white pantsuit and ethereal light blond hair. Her voice, soft in ordinary circumstances, begins to trail off. “Can everyone hear me in the back? Can everyone hear me?” Read More

Albany Follies: McCall Has Hit in Nebbish Bit

It was Andrew Cuomo who created all the buzz but, in the end, Carl McCall who stole the show. During a reception before the annual Legislative Correspondents Association roast of state political figures on June 8, journalists clutched drinks in an overlit anteroom outside Albany’s convention center, muttering about the complications caused by Mr. Cuomo. Read More

Pataki’s Channel: Governor Gloms on Free TV Ads

If you were a Republican governor seeking re-election in a state with five million registered Democrats and only three million registered Republicans, you’d be well advised to find a good crossover issue that would appeal to moderate Democrats. In your search, you could examine some recent state-wide elections where Democrats did well-say, for example, Hillary Read More

Pataki’s Gambit: Hires Tarpinian for Union Boost

A portion of Cliff Street near the South Street Seaport was

packed with sanitation workers on the sunny afternoon of April 1. Most of them

were in uniform; some were standing in front of Ryan Maguire’s Ale House.

Inside a long, narrow and extremely crowded union hall at 25 Cliff Street,

Governor George Pataki was Read More