George Pataki

George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. He previously served in the State Legislature from 1985 to 1994, and as the Mayor of Peekskill from 1981 to 1984. Pataki was the third Republican since 1923 to win New York's governorship, after Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller. Pataki's most notable achievements as governor included the creation of a number of new health care programs, presiding over recovery efforts following the September 11 attacks, and for increasing the state's credit rating three times. He chose not to run for a fourth term in 2006; he was succeeded by Democrat Eliot Spitzer. Pataki and Mary Donohue (his second Lt. Governor) remain the last Republicans to be elected to statewide office in New York, although Republicans Joseph Bruno and Dean Skelos each briefly served as acting Lieutenant Governor in 2008. Pataki announced his candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination on May 28, 2015. He withdrew from the race shortly before the primaries began on December 29, 2015. Early life and education Pataki was born on June 24, 1945 in Peekskill, New York. Pataki's paternal grandfather was Pataki János (known in the U.S. as John Pataki, 1883–1971) of Aranyosapáti, Kingdom of Hungary. The family name's Hungarian pronunciation is and means creek (little river). János came to the United States in 1908, worked in a hat factory and had married Erzsébet (later Elizabeth; 1887–1975), also Hungarian-born, around 1904. Their son, Pataki's father, was Louis P. Pataki (1912–1996), a mailman and volunteer fire chief, who ran the Pataki Farm. Pataki's maternal grandfather was Matteo Laganà (born in Calabria, Italy in 1889), who married Agnes Lynch of County Louth, Ireland around 1914. Their daughter, Margaret Lagana (1915–2017), is Pataki's mother. Pataki has an older brother, Louis. Pataki speaks some Hungarian as well as Spanish, French, and German.