Pataki Piles onto Pack of Presidential Candidates

Can a hawkish, socially liberal Northeastern Republican candidate get any traction running for president?

Former New York Governor George Pataki announced last Thursday that he was throwing his hat in the race. As governor during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 69-year-old is running on a patriotic platform, apparent throughout his announcement video. He also made a live announcement in Exeter, N.H., the birthplace of the Republican Party in 1853,  a sign he is taking that state’s early primary seriously. The theme throughout was “We the People,” an attempt to revive the feeling of unity Americans felt after 9/11, and associate it with his candidacy. “We need to recapture that spirit, the sense we are one people,” he said.

Pataki takes a strong stance against terrorism, and has been highly critical of Obama’s efforts. “Our next president can’t begin with a worldwide apology tour,” he said. “We need to take the fight to the terrorists directly.” Pataki jumps into the race at a good time to distinguish himself as a hawk, after several of the candidates retreated and said they would not have supported the Iraq War knowing what we know now.

His speech also reflected his more moderate views: “My vision was not a partisan vision. It was a vision about people, about what we could accomplish together.” At the same time, he is presenting himself as anti-establishment: his Super PAC is named “We the People Not Washington.”

The grandson of an Eastern European immigrant who came to the United States and worked in a hat factory, Pataki attended Yale University and Columbia Law School. He practiced law briefly, then entered politics. He served as mayor of Peekskill beginning in 1981, followed by stints in the New York State Assembly and Senate. In 1994, as part of the GOP sweep across the nation, he upset incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo in the governor’s race. He is one of only three Republicans since 1923 to be elected governor of New York.

Pataki supports abortion and same-sex marriage, and he pushed for anti-discrimination laws for gays. He expanded government healthcare as governor, which was praised by The New York Times. He’s considered an environmentalist and was commended by Bloomberg Businessweek for his efforts to combat global warming.

He has a record of being tough on crime, but one element of that effort may prove a turn-off to many conservatives: he signed some of the most sweeping gun control legislation in the country.

The fiscally conservative Cato Institute graded him a B as governor — far better than some Republican governors including Arizona’s Jane Hull, who received a D. His first term, from 1994-98, was quite successful. He slashed income taxes 25%, lowered the inheritance tax and held spending growth below the rate of inflation.

At the same time, he turned a $5 million dollar deficit into a $2 billion surplus. He kept education spending down, vetoing increases at state colleges while expanding charter schools. However, his second term was marked by budgets that grew five times as fast as his first term budgets and, according to Cato, by a $2 billion dollar taxpayer payoff to a union in exchange for its endorsement.

The Longest of the Long Shots?

CNN describes Pataki as “perhaps the longest of longshots of GOP hopefuls.” One writer for The Washington Post, discussing the chances of Pataki, Bobby Jindal and Lindsey Graham, quipped that “my own proprietary computing aid (vodka) inspires me to calculate that these three men have no better than a .000117 percent chance of being the Republican nominee for president in 2016.” Pataki hasn’t been in office since 2006 and has mostly stayed out of the public eye since then. Few prominent Republican financiers or officials have stepped forward to support him.

However, governors have had better success than members of Congress getting elected President, probably because they are seen as Washington outsiders with management experience. If Jeb Bush implodes, Pataki is seen by many as the next in line for GOP establishment money. He would be a strong challenger to Hillary Clinton since he hails from her own Senatorial state of New York, presenting a stark contrast to her on fighting terrorism.

He will attract little support from the conservative Republican base, but considering how many candidates in the race are getting their support from that segment, he’s better off competing for the moderate to liberal Republican segment. Of course, the liberal Northeastern type of Republican has waned in influence in recent years. Even Pataki himself doubts he can win, calling himself an “extreme long shot.” True, but then again, no one ever thought the extreme long shot would oust Cuomo as governor either.