Criticizing President Obama's intervention into the New York governor's race, former Republican Gov. George E. Pataki said that "everyone's decision to run for office is a very personal decision."

"You have to run because not just you think you can win the race but because you have the ideas and the vision," he said on a conference call hosted Monday by the Republican National Committee. "That's what the decision should be based on, not on poll numbers."

Pataki was talking about New York Gov. David A. Paterson, whom White House aides reportedly urged to step aside last week, but he could have just as easily been talking about himself.

He did not deny Monday that he is mulling the possibility of getting back into politics, most likely a Senate race vs. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

Republican Rep. Peter T. King’s decision to eschew next year’s Senate special election in New York has dealt a serious — though not unexpected — blow to the GOP’s hopes of challenging appointed Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand.

The New York Daily News reported Monday that King would instead seek a 10th term in the 3rd District on Long Island. King said he reached his decision “after months of deliberation and conversations with family members and friends and advisers,” the newspaper reported.

He had, however, indicated in late June that he was likely to opt out of the Senate race.

New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday picked up the endorsement of the feminist group Planned Parenthood's political arm -- the latest indication that there is no summertime lull for the appointed senator as she prepares for her 2010 election contest, and the possibility of a serious Democratic primary challenge by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is the latest of several women's groups aligned with the Democratic Party that have thrown their support to Gillibrand. This backing could be especially helpful to Gillibrand in a showdown with Maloney, who has indicated she will run in next year's special election primary and has been positioning herself to Gillibrand's left.

Maloney, who is in her ninth House term representing a New York City district, is one of a number of prominent Democrats who sharply opposed the January decision by Gov. David A. Paterson to pick Gillibrand to succeed Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is pleading for supporters to "rush" donations to the campaign before the end of the month, invoking the threat of a challenge by former Republican Gov. George Pataki. But there is little indication that Pataki is "seriously considering a run," as the campaign says in its e-mail.

Albany's WNYT station reported on Monday that Pataki, is "mulling over requests by Republicans to run against" Gillibrand. The station referred to an AP story from over the weekend that noted the former governor, who served three terms between 1995 and 2006, had been approached by Republicans about running. Indeed, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been open about wanting Pataki to run, first meeting with him back in February, but Pataki, himself, has not made any moves to mount a campaign.

And several Republican and New York-based sources CQ has spoken to believe it is unlikely that Pataki will, in the end, decide to challenge the incumbent, who was appointed in January to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.

To her supporters, Gillibrand's campaign insists that meeting its goal of raising $100,000 before the quarterly reporting deadline on June 30 "is essential to keep Gov. Pataki out of the race." But it may well take a lot less to keep Pataki from running.