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.
Recent polls have shown Pataki leading Gillibrand, a former House member who was appointed to the Senate in January to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a hypothetical general election match-up. Gillibrand remains unknown to a significant swath of New York voters.
Pataki did not talk specifically about a contest against Gillibrand.
"People are asking me all the time run for this, run for that," he said. "I obviously continue to be very interested in the public policy debate ... Whether or not that might at some point propel me to seek public office again, I haven't made that decision."
Pataki didn't seem to be in any rush, either. "For better or worse people of this state know me pretty well," he said, which enables him to potentially jump in a 2010 race "a lot further down the road than now."
The RNC held the conference call to discuss President Obama's speech at Hudson Valley Community College in upstate New York Monday. Pataki lauded the president for making the visit and recognizing the region and the state's community college system. But he said the president seems to lack "an understanding that jobs are created by the private sector," not by government spending.
"We need to see policies in Washington that focus on jobs, focus on empowering the private sector," Pataki said.
The talk, however, quickly turned to New York politics and Pataki's take on the 2010 governor's race, as well as his own political fortunes.
Pataki said he thought the White House's attempt to push the unpopular Paterson out in favor of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was "wrong," and that the president could better spend his time focusing on the nation's ongoing economic crisis. And he said he had "no idea" whether the drama on the Democratic side of the ticket would affect Republican Rudy Giuliani's decision to run for governor. Pataki thought Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, would make a "very formidable candidate" against either Paterson or Cuomo.
CQ Politics rates both the general election contest for New York Senate Democrat Favored and New York governor Leans Democratic.
To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.
To follow the 2009 and 2010 governors' races, check out CQ Politics' election map.
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Comments
Where o' where are Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson? These 2 race-baiters should be screaming bloody murder over the White House's attempt to push a black incumbent to the side in favor of a white candidate.
Posted by: NObama
| September 22, 2009 10:23 AM
Talk about race baiting... neither of the gentlemen Nobama mentioned are factors in NYS politics.
Nobama really had to stoop low to get his bigotry accross on that one.
Posted by: Robert Chapman
| September 22, 2009 6:42 PM
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