Governor

George E. Pataki took over from the virtually unbeatable Mario Cuomo as Governor of New York in January 1995, a giant leap for the one time legislator who won the hearts of voters on the campaign trail. 

He told one of his colleagues soon afterwards that he had to get used to the fact that he belonged in the governor’s mansion in Albany. New Yorkers liked his fresh, genial, open style of governing, and his approach to politics. The governor, a 1967 graduate of Yale and 1970 graduate of Columbia Law School, whose Irish roots are on his mother’s side, has the Irish love of socializing and quickly opened up the mansion to guests of all persuasions. “It’s a more social, warmer approach to politics, more in the Rockefeller style,” commented one of his opponents. 

In his first budget Governor Pataki cut state spending and reduced income taxes. Elected to the State Assembly in 1984, he was named `State Legislator of the Year’ by the Environmental Planning Lobby. Governor Pataki was elected to the Senate in 1992 for the 37th District in the mid-Hudson region. During his tenure he chaired the Senate Ethics Committee.