Free Republic

He continued, “For us in New York, I feel truly like the state is hitting a breaking point, and I’ve had every single day – every day – I have New Yorkers tell me, ‘If you don’t win, I’m leaving.’ There are days where it happens a dozen times during the day. So I feel like I can effect the change to save this state. As one person said to me — and he was right when he said it — ‘This isn’t some regular campaign. This is a rescue mission.'” New York lost a higher share of its population...

Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man. In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal security detail. Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final...

Gov. George Pataki has nine weeks remaining in his final term, and a sizable number of Western New Yorkers are ready to say goodbye. Thirty-one percent of local adults consider Pataki to be New York's worst governor since 1959, according to a new Business First-Goldhaber Research Associates Poll. That's the highest negative rating for any governor since Nelson Rockefeller. The runner-up in the survey, Mario Cuomo, received about half as many unfavorable votes as Pataki did. "At the end of the day, if people are unhappy, they're going to blame someone. Many Western New Yorkers are unhappy today, and they're...