Showing little financial interest in pursuing a fourth term as New York Governor, where he faces a stiff challenge from well-funded Democrat New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Republican Governor George E. Pataki recently made a trip to Iowa to plant the seeds of a Pataki presidential run in 2008.
Closer to home Pataki has problems, including in the words of GOP wordsmith Frank Luntz, who is working with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, “a hole that hasn’t begun to be filled,” and a long-term, recently revealed Medicaid waste scandal that shows the Governor as something less than a fiscal watchdog.* The balancing act for someone considered a pro-choice GOP moderate takes its toll as well, with a pending emergency contraception bill involving more than the usual political considerations for someone trying to take in the fields of Iowa on a summer’s day.
Given the difficulties in New York, it could be that Iowa is a more pleasant place for Governor Pataki. The political winds blowing in Iowa do not necessarily bode well for the emergency contraception bill, but they could just as well dictate the need for Governor Pataki to stand on principle as a pro-choice candidate. The Republican governor won’t have an easy choice - but he will make a memorable one. The national GOP will be watching, and perhaps some residents in Iowa too.
* To be fair it doesn’t make Eliot Spitzer look too good either.
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