Posted on 04/28/2005 9:34:07 AM PDT by areafiftyone
(1010 WINS) (ALBANY) Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld has said he won't decide whether to run for governor of his native New York until the fall, but the state's Democratic machinery was already on the attack Wednesday.
``If you think George Pataki has been an effective governor, then Bill Weld is the guy for you,'' said Rodney Capel, executive director of the state Democratic Committee. ``Banker's hours, no perceptible record and a trail of unfinished business in his wake. New Yorkers need a governor focused on the state's problems _ not someone who gets bored with governing and then quits.''
Weld, who returned to New York in 2000 and is a partner in a private equity investment firm, was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1990 and easily re-elected in 1994. He ran for U.S. Senate in 1996 but was defeated by Democratic incumbent John Kerry. He resigned as governor in 1997 when then-President Clinton nominated him to become U.S. ambassador to Mexico, but the nomination was blocked in the Senate.
Weld did not immediately return a telephone message left for him Wednesday by The Associated Press.
``This is nothing more than the typical hysterics from Eliot Spitzer's minions at New York's Democratic Party,'' said Ryan Moses, Capel's counterpart at the Republican State Committee. ``New Yorkers trust Republican leadership, and that is why for over a decade, Democrats have been looking at the Governor's Mansion and Gracie Mansion (the New York City mayor's official residence) from the outside in.''
Democrat Spitzer, New York's attorney general, has already announced he is running for governor next year.
On Tuesday, in an interview with the AP, Weld said he is seriously considering entering the 2006 New York governor's race if fellow Republican Pataki does not seek a fourth term. Pataki has promised a decision on that within the next few months.
Weld said he was very close to Pataki on some issues, supporting strong environmental initiatives as well as abortion and gay rights. Weld, also like Pataki, was seen as a fiscally conservative tax-cutter when he first became governor. Both support the death penalty.
That positioning as a socially moderate, fiscal conservative has worked well for Pataki, who has won three terms as New York governor in a state where there are 5 million Democrats and just 3 million Republicans.
Nonetheless, recent polls have shown Pataki trailing far behind Spitzer in a possible 2006 matchup for the governorship.
If you like peanuts, you'll love Skippy!
Bill Weld is a weiner. Pure and simple.
If you like peanuts, you'll love Skippy!
Bill Weld is a weiner. Pure and simple.
Bill Weld may be a wiener and a flake but it sure beats a Donk governor. I think he could win the governorship there. What a hoot to have been governor of two states.
I still remember Bill Weld waxing rhapsodic after The Who played a Massachusetts date circa 1994.
Don't dis Billy boy. He's the most "conservative" candidate a state like New York could elect. Bill is pro-business and libertarian oriented.
Bill Weld. Pillar of Strength. OK. If it makes you happy.
yeah , well , just a friendly reminder to all the "snicker-erzzz",...its an uphill battle here in NY but we're not gonna cut'n run ,Pataki and Rudy would've been impossible many years ago ,...the left can't be very overt at calling Weld a carpetbagger,there is another someone......
Unfortunately, Pataki is the closest thing to conservative we have here - and that hurts to even type.
The leader of the state Senate Joe Bruno is turning out to be King Nepotism and is siding more with Assembly leader Sheldon Silver then with Pataki, which shows he's losing what little grip he had here. Plus most of the more prominent GOP state Senators voted for taxes increases over the past two years so the entire state party is in ruins (good cover story in NR three issues back about this).
Spitzer is media glory hog in the mold of Schumer. Plus he's a core liberal on every issue under the sun and lives to spurn corporations. He would be Cuomo without the silver tongue.
Now I'm no RINO fan, but I'll put forth the same argument I did when Arnold was running in CA - as a citizen of NY I would much rather have Weld who I may agree with on 25% of the issues then Spitzer who I agree with on zero. I can handle the divergence on social issues if I can get some tax relief because in this state, being a true conservative is like being a baby seal at a hammer convention.
Sickening isn't it? But you are welcome to move here we could use more Republicans! :-)
Weld will play up his NY connection. Just returning to his roots.
Born on July 31, 1945, in New York City, William Floyd Weld was educated at Harvard College and Oxford University and received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1970.
> Bill Weld may be a wiener and a flake but it sure beats a Donk governor. I think he could win the governorship there. What a hoot to have been governor of two states.
1. It was pointed out in another thread that some guy was governor of Tennessee and Texas. Only one to ever do it. Daniel Webster represented N.H. in the U.S. House of Representatives, moved to Massachusetts, was elected to the U.S. House there and then U.S. Senate.
2. Eliot Spitzer is the only Dem who does anything but whine, obstruct or attack.
3. Bill Weld is the laziest guy in the world.
4. It's all up to Rudy.
Born on July 31, 1945, in New York City, William Floyd Weld was educated at Harvard College and Oxford University and received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1970.
Bill Weld is from the old Weld family of New York. White-Weld and Company was a major Wall Street force for decades. Allan Greenspan worked there a while.
LINK
I joined the Wall Street firm of White Weld & Co. Inc. in 1970, having just completed my studies in economics and knowing nothing at all about stock broking and security analysis. In early 1971, this clubby and blue-blooded (no Jews allowed) East Coast firm, well known for its growth stock philosophy, hired Mr. Alan Greenspan, then a principal of Townsend Greenspan, as a consulting economist.
Well you might want Spitzer to ruin us, but I sure as hell don't.
I'd toss the bathwater out before I'd toss the baby.
ping
You're probably thinking of Sam Houston.
He supported the Contract with America.
He supported Prop. 187.
He was also one of the few GOP officeholders brave enough to endorse Gov. Pete Wilson's presidential run in 1996.
I don't see how any genuine Republican could equate him with an oleaginous, striving, Coumoesque schmuck like Eliot Spitzer.
That's my point - I'll take his fiscal views and turn a blind eye to his social views because in NY I don't have any viable alternatives. Like I said, trus conservatives cannot exist in high state office here. NYC and some LI enclaves will never go for it.
Protest voting in a national election is not as harsh as protest voting in a state election. I can hope that Congress will work offset a Clinton-type but it is much more difficult to ask the same of a state legislature where corrupt politics are magnified.
If it's a Weld/Spitzer election, I'm squinting my eyes and voting for Weld.
If this trial balloon he's floating doesn't take off, I have the sneaking suspicion that the state GOP is simply going to nominate another sacrificial lamb, a la Howard Mills, in the following gubernatorial election.
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