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A week and a half ago, Conservative Douglas L. Hoffman was appearing on a nationally syndicated conservative talk show while Democrat William L. Owens was in New York City, attending a fundraiser with...Obama. "I was in a dairy barn that night," said Republican Dierdre K. Scozzafava. "I was talking to a constituent about the dairy crisis." "It struck me at the time that there was a little irony in it. Our congressional race had become a referendum on issues far from here," Ms. Scozzafava said...after announcing earlier in the day that she was suspending her congressional campaign. "Our area had...

Former New York Gov. George Pataki endorsed Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman tonight, the clearest sign yet that even the most establishment New York Republicans now view Hoffman as having the best shot at preventing a Democrat from winning next Tuesday's special election.

NEW YORK | Former New York Gov. George Pataki on Thursday endorsed Doug Hoffman, the conservative candidate for the special congressional election to a seat in upstate New York next month. Mr. Pataki announced his support for Mr. Hoffman at a Conservative Party fundraiser at the New York Athletic Club. Mr. Pataki said he has a farm in the 23rd congressional district and I know that district inside and out. John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also backed Mr. Hoffman at the event.

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile) Thursday, October 29th at 8:53PM EDT I am told reliably, but have not yet confirmed, that Governor George Pataki endorsed Doug Hoffman tonight at a Conservative Party event. As Matt Drudge would say: Developing . . . If this is so, this is huge. Pataki routinely won NY-23 by huge margins. He remains quite popular up there. UPDATE: IT IS CONFIRMED. Gov. George Pataki has endorsed Doug Hoffman for the United States Congress. Pataki’s statement: Statement from Governor George E. Pataki As someone personally engaged in the way of life in the Adirondacks and Northern...

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile) Thursday, October 29th at 8:53PM EDT 4 Comments I am told reliably, but have not yet confirmed, that Governor George Pataki endorsed Doug Hoffman tonight at a Conservative Party event. As Matt Drudge would say: Developing . . . If this is so, this is huge. Pataki routinely won NY-23 by huge margins. He remains quite popular up there.

Senate Republican campaign chief John Cornyn (Texas) turned his eye toward New York this week, and on Thursday he expressed confidence the GOP could go after Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in 2010. New York has emerged as perhaps the next big recruiting target for Cornyn. Candidates have flooded primaries in other races, but all eyes in New York are on Gov. George Pataki, who could decide as early as the next two weeks.

George Pataki will be in Iowa next month to raise money for local Republicans. The former New York governor will be the headline speaker at a fundraising event on November 10th, according to Brian Kennedy, finance director for the Scott County Republican Party. The visit could boost speculation that Pataki is planning to run for the Republican party nomination in the 2012 election. Other potential GOP candidates, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, will be at an event in Des Moines three days prior. Pataki spent time in Iowa during the 2008 presidential election; however, he did not seek the...

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) lashed out at conservative Republican colleagues during a meeting on Capitol Hill Wednesday when asked why the NRCC chose to back liberal, ACORN supported candidate Dede Scozzafava, in the upcoming special election to succeed Rep. John McHugh in New York's 23rd Congressional District Sessions was called out by conservative members of the caucus, and challenged when asked why NRCC resources -- cash and personnel -- were being used for Scozzafava. "We have a conservative running in this race, and the Republican Party is not with him," says a conservative House member...

Appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand holds a narrow lead over former Governor George Pataki in a hypothetical match-up for New York State’s 2010 Senate race. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the campaign shows Gillibrand with 44% of the vote and Pataki with 41%. However, Gillibrand’s numbers appear to be deflated a bit by the fact that 12% of Democrats say they would prefer to vote for some other candidate. Ever since Gillibrand was appointed by Governor David Paterson to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this year, some Democrats have voiced the opinion that she is too conservative for...

Hosted by the RNC, former Gov. George Pataki’s post-Obama teleconference sounded awfully platform-establishing for those who think Pataki might be interested in making a run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010. Pataki began by noting that the programs and projects that President Obama came to HVCC to praise “arose out of policies we put in place beginning in the year 2000,” and noted that Obama should have emphasized that “jobs are created by the public sector.” Pataki criticized the state tax burden and said the federal government was embarked on a “massive spending binge,” rhetoric that puts check marks next...

Former Republican Gov. George Pataki has leapt ahead of Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in an hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up, according to a new poll out this morning. The statewide Marist College survey found voters would narrowly favor the three-term governor - 48 percent to 44 percent - over the freshman senator if the 2010 election were held today. That's an eight-point swing from a similar poll in July, when Pataki trailed Gillibrand 42 percent to 46 percent.

- Ex-Gov. George Pataki is at the top of national Republicans' wish list to take on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand at the polls next fall. "In New York there's sort of a short list," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who is in charge of recruiting and coordinating the GOP's Senate campaigns. "I've talked to Gov. Pataki about it, but I don't know what he will decide," Cornyn, tasked with reversing the tide of Democratic Senate victories the past two elections, told reporters over breakfast.

For those writing Republican centrism’s obituary after Arlen Specter’s party switch, holster your quills. In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party. The month of May will be huge, recruiting-wise, for Senate Republicans, with decisions expected from several big-name candidates, including Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and possibly Rep. Mike Castle (Del.). All would instantly be formidable — with Crist and Castle favored at the outset — and all are...

Critics are calling it unpatriotic to abandon the "Freedom Tower" name for an iconic skyscraper rising at ground zero. Former Gov. George Pataki gave the 1,776-foot tower its name in a speech two years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He says the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is "outrageous" for deciding to call the tower One World Trade Center.

AlSKA. After a thorough review, state officials ordered Governor Sarah Palin (R) pay her back taxes related to per diem reimbursements she claimed while staying in her home. The Washington Post first reported last September that Palin had billed the state for nearly $17,000 worth of meals and other living expenses while staying in her Wasilla home during the first 19 months in office. NEW YORK. Former Governor George Pataki (R) met with NRSC officials this week to discuss a possible run next year against newly appointed US Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D). Congressman Peter King has also met with the...

The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee has approached former New York Gov. George Pataki about running for the U.S. Senate in 2010, according to a person who spoke to Pataki about the private meeting. The person confirmed Tuesday's meeting in New York City between Pataki and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who heads the committee. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment. Pataki, now in private law practice, had not accepted or rejected the idea, the person said. He would face Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed on Jan....

Just a reminder that -- fresh off their tense final debate (fullvideo) -- the presidential contenders will make their last joint appearance of the campaign at tonight's Al Smith Dinner in New York. Now in its 63rd year, the white-tie barb-fest at the Waldorf-Astoria benefits Catholic Charities of the Big Apple archdiocese. Hosted by the city's archbishop -- who'll be flanked by John McCain and Barack Obama at the center of the traditional multi-tiered dais -- the event takes its name in tribute to the son of the Lower East Side tenements who rose to become the Empire State's...

A former top State Police official who killed himself left behind a detailed suicide note focusing on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe of the Dirty Tricks Scandal and feared an ongoing investigation of ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with prostitutes, The Post has learned. Recently retired State Police Inspector Gary Berwick, who hung himself in the garage of his home on Thursday, wrote a wide-ranging and sometimes rambling suicide note, sources said. The letter zeroed in on his close relationship with former acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, a key figure in last summer's political espionage scandal who was dumped after...

March 31, 2008 ALBANY - The scandal-scarred State Police is suspected of harboring a renegade unit that for years has secretly compiled personal information on top New York officials - possibly including Gov. Paterson, The Post has learned. The governor got a whiff of the existence of such an illegal, politically directed operation after being told by several lawmakers that the State Police targeted them for unjustified traffic stops and "interfered in their personal lives," a senior Paterson aide told The Post yesterday. The explosive information - supplied to Paterson by both Democrats and Republicans - suggests that the Dirty...

When Gov. George E. Pataki left office last January, he was the dominant Republican politician in New York. Over three terms, he had shattered fund-raising records and had racked up double-digit victory margins in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, becoming a national political figure in the process. Mr. Pataki ruled Albany for so long that even now some swatches of state bureaucracy are still run by his political appointees. Yet as the Feb. 5 New York presidential primary draws near — a contest that Mr. Pataki once envisioned as central to his own White House ambitions — the former governor is...

New York appears to be abandoning a hard-line policy on parole that has served the state well for more than a decade and contributed to a historic reduction in violent crime. Parole officials have been quietly turning loose greater numbers of violent convicts - and now Gov. Spitzer is getting ready to surrender in a convicts' lawsuit that's aimed at speeding the trend. Before another murderer, kidnapper, arsonist or rapist is freed, Spitzer needs to explain to the public exactly what's going on and why. His parole chief, George Alexander, is mum. And the governor's aides refuse to discuss their...

Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of my state, has achieved a thing I would have though impossible: He has made me yearn for the days of George Pataki. Spitzer's latest wheeze, to give state driver licenses to illegal aliens, was actually state policy for most of Pataki's term as Governor, until Curious George changed the rules in 2003 (causing 150,000 illegals to lose their licenses). Oddly, under the pre-2003 Pataki rules, illegals could get licenses without showing a Social Security number provided they supplied documentary proof that they were ineligible for Social Security. Under Spitzer's proposed change, an illegal no longer...

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is preparing to announce a new policy that will enable illegal aliens to obtain a driver's license. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles no longer will require applicants to provide Social Security numbers or proof they're eligible for Social Security cards, the New York Post and New York Sun reported. Under the new rules, valid foreign passports, previous state driver's licenses and other verifiable proofs of ID will be considered on a point-based system, according to a source who spoke to the Post. "The DMV does not believe it's in the business checking a person's...

ALBANY, N.Y. Former Governor George Pataki says today that he would be "honored" to support either former Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Sen. John McCain if they win the Republican nomination. Pataki hasn't yet ruled out a possible run of his own for the White House, For his own part, Pataki says he would "continue to focus on policy" with speeches around the country. He delivered one on Iraq in January in which he was critical of the way the war has been handled. Pataki's latest comments came as he prepared to travel to New Orleans for an April 13th breakfast...

McCain, in New York, Gets Surprise Visit From Pataki By JILL GARDINER Staff Reporter of the Sun March 1, 2007 Senator McCain's swing through New York last night, which included an appearance on the "Late Show With David Letterman" and an event with Governor Pataki at his side, seemed clearly designed to blunt the momentum of his leading Republican opponent, Mayor Giuliani. Mr. McCain — who told Mr. Letterman that he'd make his candidacy for president official in April — called Mr. Giuliani an "American hero," but said he would "campaign hard" to get the Republican Party nomination.

Governor Spitzer reached for Washington Irving for the central metaphor of his inaugural speech, declaring yesterday in Albany: "Like Rip Van Winkle, the legendary character created by the New York author Washington Irving, New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by." The central question for his administration, we predict, will be whether it comprehends who has been asleep and whether the Democrats have really awakened to all the changes that have taken place in the competing states — and in political economy generally — in the years of...

AFTER 12 years and three terms, Gov. Pataki leaves state government far worse then he found it: Albany is scarred by notorious dysfunction, afflicted with pervasive corruption and marked by a torpidity unprecedented in modern times. The state as a whole is also worse off - with a shrinking population, a collapsing industrial base, confiscatory property taxes and a tragic hemorrhaging of an upstate population once famous for its productivity. The sole bright spot - the explosive growth of the New York City economy and some of its suburbs - came despite Pataki's policies, and thanks to the inexorable Wall...

Company to Create 164 New Jobs; Retain 12 Existing Jobs Governor George E. Pataki today announced that Orange County Choppers, manufacturer of custom motorcycles, plans to invest $13.4 million to construct a 92,820 square foot facility at Crossroads Court in the Town of Newburgh in order to accommodate the increasing expansion of the business. The project is expected to create 164 new jobs within three years and retain 12 full time, permanent employees. “I am pleased that Orange County Choppers has committed to growing their enterprise and building their new world headquarters right here in Newburgh, New York,” Governor Pataki...

For tomorrow's elections, The Post has endorsed Democrats for top New York offices. This is unusual - not because we have any particular allegiance to, or affection for, the Republican Party per se. It's because the GOP and its candidates usually tend to be on our side of the major issues: Tough on crime and national security and solicitous of the taxpayers' dollars. This year, there is a problem with the Republican Party; actually, the problem is the GOP. Blame Gov. Pataki, the party's putative custodian. Detached from the beginning of his 12-year tenure - and now harboring delusions of...

I recieved this email just a short time ago. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Friend: In just one week, Americans will exercise one of our most cherished freedoms: the right to vote. Republican candidates across the nation have been working hard to earn your vote by talking about the important issues. It’s simple: Republican principles of freedom and liberty matter. That’s why Republicans need your support this week and on Election Day. The 21st Century Freedom PAC is conducting a nationwide Get-Out-The-Vote program to help elect Republicans at all levels of government. I’d like to keep you posted on our progress and get...

Governor George Pataki signed a new gun law Tuesday in Albany that will raise the minimum mandatory sentence for possession of a loaded illegal weapon to three and a half years. "That message is going to get out in the city; that message is going to get out in every corner of this state; and I believe this one law is going to save many lives," said Pataki. Mayor Michael Bloomberg lobbied for the bill, which passed the legislature in June. He's also been meeting with mayors across the country to push for tougher gun laws. He has made gun...

Pataki appoints special prosecutor Albany — Gov. George Pataki appointed a special prosecutor yesterday to kick off an extraordinary process that could lead to embattled state Comptroller Alan Hevesi being forced from office for using a state worker as his wife's private driver. Pataki asked David Kelley, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to help him decide within a week whether to make the unprecedented request of the Republican-controlled state Senate to vote for Hevesi's removal. "It is an extraordinary act for officials to overturn an election of a statewide elected official after a vote by...

“This mayor is heartless and a pompous ass. He doesn't understand how people live. Maybe he should live on $500 a week for a few months and see what it's like," – Linda Zadroga, the mother of the deceased NYPD Detective James Zadroga. If a 9/11 first responder retires, either due to disability or by choice, and later dies of 9/11 related illness, Mayor Bloomberg seemingly thinks they are half the hero those who died on 9/11 were. He says New York state law says the city only has to pay their families half of what the families would receive...

10/16/2006         GAAS:760:06           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Executive Order to Begin Implementation of Landmark Greenhouse Gas Legislation; Focuses on Developing Market-Based Solutions In conjunction with his meetings with New York Gov. Pataki and New York Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced an executive order that directs state agencies to begin implementation of AB 32, California's landmark global greenhouse legislation signed last month. Some of the highlights of the executive order include: • The Secretary for Environmental Protection shall be the statewide leader for California's greenhouse gas emission reduction programs for state...

"Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer" By Brooke A. Masters (New York: Henry Holt; 368 pages; $26) "Nice kid. He's gonna get killed," Daniel Patrick Moynihan, New York's senior U.S. senator, growled backstage after grudgingly endorsing Eliot Spitzer's 1998 candidacy for attorney general of New York. Moynihan, a fabled handicapper, was wrong: Spitzer won -- albeit barely, by 25,186 votes out of 4.3 million cast, and only after a recount. Now, thanks to his highly publicized attacks on the fraud and abuse in the financial services industry, he's a household name, the most famous (or infamous, depending...

As pre-ordained, Mayor Bloomberg was voted in as chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation yesterday. While waiting for the inevitable, my mind wandered back to late last year and this. Following the 9/11 money (from a New York Daily News editorial, originally published on December 10, 2005) No one knew how much money the city was going to need and for what purposes. Sen. Chuck Schumer presented the best guess to Bush in the Oval Office, and the President said, "You got it." So programs were created, and grants, loans and tax incentives began arriving to meet immediate...

At this point, the pending 2008 Republican nomination contest looks like it will eventually be a battle between two candidates: John McCain and the “anti-McCain”. To some degree, McCain still has some work to do in locking up his end of the party, such as it is. He’s still being stalked by Rudi Giuliani, who keeps popping up right along with McCain at or near the top of early GOP horse race polls. The problem for McCain is that they both seem to be fishing in the same pond, so he will have to nail down his left flank before...

In his final months in office, Gov. George E. Pataki has appointed or reappointed hundreds of officials to state boards, commissions and authorities, assuring his imprint on state government for years after his term expires on Dec. 31. The appointments include Peter S. Kalikow, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to a new six-year term and overseers of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, who could play a role in the redevelopment of the West Side. Many are Pataki contributors, political allies or their relatives. Mr. Pataki has submitted dozens more nominees to the Republican-controlled Senate for confirmation today,...

Preview and Analysis of the Weekend Talk Shows for 9/9 and 9/10/2006The fifth anniversary of 9/11 is Monday, and the drive by media wants to make sure you know what you are supposed to think.  They also really don't want you to get a chance to hear any other versions of the 9/11 narrative that might raise questions about their approved one.Meet the press has Vice President Dick Cheney ("for the first time in three years" - gee I wonder why?) for the "full hour" (not counting commercials, promos, asides, other business, etc., etc.).  The drive by media is beginning...

The results of the latest GOP Bloggers straw poll are in. The poll was posted on the Red State homepage over the weekend, and first-choice results are as follows (full results with RS results in parentheses). Giuliani 24.6% (22.0%) Gingrich 21.1% (19.5%) Romney 12.8% (15.8%) Allen 11.5% (11.3%) Tancredo 6.7% (4.5%) McCain 6.4% (6.7%) Hagel 2.8% (3.3%) Brownback 2.5% (3.2%) Huckabee 1.5% (1.8%) Frist 1.1% (0.9%) Pataki 0.3% (0.3%)Read on... The Macaca incident has clearly devastated Allen’s numbers in the blogosphere, his stronghold. He used to have sky-high favorability, largely because he hadn’t done anything to offend anyone. He also...

ALBANY, Aug. 18 — Gov. George E. Pataki nominated an upstate Republican on Friday to be his fifth appointee on the seven-member Court of Appeals, moving to assure that his imprint on the state’s highest court will last long into the next governor’s term. The governor appointed Eugene F. Pigott Jr., the presiding justice of the appellate division in Buffalo, to fill the seat that is being vacated by Judge George Bundy Smith, whose 14-year term ends next month. Judge Smith had applied to be reappointed to a second term, but several legal experts said that his prospects were harmed...

Governor Pataki deserves a cheer from New York taxpayers for a series of vetoes of overly generous pension sweeteners and other measures that would have tilted the field in favor of the state's already powerful public employee unions. One of the bills would have granted automatic raises to state and local government employees if the state Public Employment Relations Board found their employers were negotiating in bad faith. Others would have enriched retirement benefits for state workers at a cost of more than $100 million. The governor's vetoes — 70 of them yesterday alone — are a reminder that while...

ANKENY, Iowa - Republicans can avert a disastrous midterm election this fall by returning to basic conservative themes that set them apart from Democrats, New York Gov. George Pataki said Saturday. "There will be a lot of change between now and November," Pataki said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I understand that it will be a tough year, but we have to get back to focusing on what Republicans stand for." Pataki was visiting Iowa, where he campaigned and raised money for legislative candidates, and tested the waters for a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination in...

"Eileen Sullivan, right, of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, is removed from the room by an unidentified security official as her colleague Donovan Smith, seated left,, continues to shout, during an appearance by New York Republican Gov. George Pataki at the National Press Club in Washington Monday, Aug. 7, 2006. Pataki, who is considering a run for president in 2008, was speaking about a national energy plan when protesting transit workers shouted that he was to blame for the transit strike that paralyzed New York City's subway and bus system last December."

ALBANY, N.Y. - As Republican George Pataki set off on his latest national political foray Friday, a top adviser to a potential White House rival blasted the New York governor for becoming "a full-time presidential candidate." Pataki announced a year ago that he would not seek a fourth term as governor in 2006. He is instead eyeing a 2008 run for the White House and has been spending much of his time outside New York in recent months, visiting states with early presidential nominating contests. On Friday, Pataki was making stops in New Hampshire, the site of the first presidential...

July 29, 2006 -- Last week's power outage in Queens was a "classic case of blunder after blunder" that smacked of either incompetence or negligence, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday as Con Ed warned the coming heat wave could cause problems. Some Con Ed customers hit by last week's outage could lose power for around 20 minutes this weekend as crews transfer them from temporary generators back to the regular electric grid, the utility said. Also, Con Ed issued a statement yesterday asking people in northwest Queens "to limit their energy usage as much as possible while crews reinforce...

Gov. Pataki yesterday took it on the chin from old nemesis and possible 2008 presidential primary opponent John McCain, who mocked the governor's low poll numbers at home. In a profile on McCain in the August issue of Esquire, the Arizona Republican said he scoffed when told by upstate Rep. John Sweeney (R-Saratoga) that Pataki's poll numbers are at 29 percent. "Twenty-nine?" McCain asked. "I don't know anyone with a 29 who thinks he can make a run for president." Polls show McCain among the Republican front-runners for 2008. Pataki has frequently visited key early states like Iowa and New...

TVC ASKS PATAKI TO STOP HARASSMENT June 21, 2006 - Washington, DC – The Traditional Values Coalition asked New York Governor George Pataki to rein in a state agency which is threatening legal action against an Accord, New York skating rink because it plays Christian music during a “Christian Music Skate” party. The New York Division of Human Rights threatened Len and Terry Bernardo, owners of the Skate Time 209 rink in Accord, with an investigation because the rink plays Christian music during certain hours. The agency also threatened to charge a local newspaper which advertised the event for “aiding...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Four Republicans considering running for president in 2008 courted activists Saturday and predicted GOP success in the November elections despite the party's sagging support in polls. "The theme is we are right on the issues, not just for Iowa but for the country," said New York Gov. George Pataki. "I understand what the experts are saying, but if we stick to Republican principles we will succeed." Also at the Iowa Republican convention, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) said, "The Democrats want this election to be a referendum election. But the best thing we...

DES MOINES, Iowa - New York Gov. George Pataki strolled through a teeming farmers market in Iowa, chewing on a giant radish and pressing the flesh with a few thousand people he'd like to be his closest friends. "I grew up on a farm, so you learned to eat everything raw," said the Republican, a potential presidential candidate in 2008. "I know you, I'm a transplanted New Yorker," gushed Isabel Osius. "I guess I don't have to ask why you're here." Within the hour, Pataki had donned dark robes and was delivering the commencement speech to medical graduates at Des...