Mary Donohue | |
---|---|
Lieutenant Governor of New York | |
In office January 1, 1999 –December 31, 2006 | |
Governor | George Pataki |
Preceded by | Betsy McCaughey Ross |
Succeeded by | David Paterson |
Personal details | |
Born | Troy,New York,U.S. | March 22,1947
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Anthony Ricci |
Education | College of New Rochelle Russell Sage College Albany Law School (JD) |
Profession | Politician;judge;attorney;teacher |
Mary O'Connor Donohue (born March 22,1947) is an American retired educator,attorney,politician and Judge of the New York Court of Claims,who served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 1999 to 2006. [1] Donohue was first elected lieutenant governor in 1998,and was re-elected in 2002. [2]
Donohue is a former teacher and lawyer who was once an aide to State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. [3] She graduated from the College of New Rochelle and received a master's degree in Education from Russell Sage College. In 1983,she received a Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School. [2]
In addition to working for Bruno,Donohue served as an Assistant County Attorney in Rensselaer County. During her time in the county attorney's office,she worked on Family Court and juvenile justice issues. [2]
Donohue served as the district attorney of Rensselaer County for several years in the 1990s. During her two terms as district attorney,she prosecuted over 5,000 cases a year. She handled several cases herself. In 1996,she was elected as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. [3] Serving as a state judge,Donohue handled both civil and criminal cases. She resigned from her judgeship in 1998,when Pataki picked her as a running mate. [2]
Donohue was selected as the running mate to Gov. George Pataki in his 1998 re-election bid. After she and Gov. Pataki won their 1998 election,Donohue was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of New York on January 1,1999,replacing Betsy McCaughey Ross.
When Donohue became lieutenant governor,Gov. Pataki appointed her to head a special task force on school violence issues. [2] Gov. Pataki said that he designated Donohue to head the task force because of her background as a teacher and district attorney. According to her state website,Donohue spent a year traveling the state meeting with teachers,parents,students,and law enforcement to discuss school violence issues. As a part of her work,Donohue formulated a series of recommendations,signed into law by Pataki in 2000.
Since 1999,Donohue started to spend time traveling the state promoting school violence prevention and to implement the recommendations of her task force. In 2005,Donohue led a state program,comprising several agencies,to determine best practices in the area of school violence prevention. Part of the recommendations made by Donohue's task force included giving teacher authority to have disruptive students removed from classrooms,creating character education curricula in school districts,and making violence against a teacher in a classroom a felony.
In 2000,Pataki appointed Donohue to chair a task force on quality communities in New York. [2] Donohue's task force met around the state to discuss land use policies,economic development,and growth issues. The panel issued 41 recommendations on preserving community character statewide. After the conclusion of the task force,Donohue served as Chairwoman of the Quality Communities Working Group,which oversaw implementation of the task force's recommendations and the awarding of quality communities grants to towns statewide.
According to the website for the Quality Communities Clearinghouse,Donohue's panel made recommendations in the areas of neighborhood preservation,open space conservation,farmland preservation,economic development,land use planning,transportation,and technology. Donohue has traveled the state hosting roundtable discussion on quality communities issues since 2000. In that role,she worked with Secretaries of State Alexander Treadwell,Randy Daniels,and Christopher Jacobs on local government issues.
In 2001,Donohue chaired a task force on small business issues in the state. In that role,she met with small business owners and developed policy recommendations for governor on these issues. During her second term,Donohue frequently traveled the state promoting homeland security issues,drunk driving prevention,and criminal justice.
In 2005,Donohue was named by Pataki as the Chairwoman of the New York State Delegation to the White House Conference on Aging. Before the conference,Donohue held a series of community meetings around the state on aging issues.
In 1997,Pataki announced that he was dropping Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross from his 1998 reelection ticket. Pataki and McCaughey Ross had feuded for much of his term. McCaughey Ross would later become a Democrat and run unsuccessfully for governor in 1998.
Following Pataki's announcement regarding McCaughey Ross,Donohue was reported as a possible replacement running mate. In addition,State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro,State Senator Mary Lou Rath and Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples were reported as possible running mates. In the spring of 1998,Pataki announced his selection of Donohue.
In the 1998 general election,the Pataki-Donohue ticket defeated the Democratic ticket of New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone for governor and Brighton Town Supervisor Sandra Frankel for lieutenant governor.
In 2002,there were reports that Donohue was being pushed out by Pataki as his running mate. The reports said that either Secretary of State Randy Daniels or Erie County Executive Joel Giambra would replace her on the Pataki ticket. Donohue beat back the challenge. There were reports that she was offered the Republican nomination for state attorney general to challenge Eliot Spitzer in 2002 so that she would not seek re-election. She declined the nomination,which went to Judge Dora Irizarry instead.
In September 2002 Donohue and Pataki fought to win the nomination of the New York State Independence Party. Donohue won her primary,but Pataki lost to Rochester businessman Tom Golisano. This made Donohue both the running mate of Pataki and Golisano in the November election and made her the officeholder who won the most votes in New York State in 2002.
The Pataki/Donohue ticket defeated the Democratic ticket of State Comptroller Carl McCall for governor and businessman Dennis Mehiel for lieutenant governor.
After Pataki announced in 2005 that he would not seek reelection,Donohue was seen as a possible candidate for governor. However,she later announced that she would not run for office in 2006 either.
On March 3,2006,Donohue informed reporters that her name had been submitted by Pataki to President George W. Bush for nomination to a United States District Court judgeship in Upstate New York. [4] On June 27,2006,the White House announced that Donohue has been nominated to the judgeship. Her nomination went to the US Senate for confirmation,where it was not brought up by the Senate Judiciary Committee before the 109th Congress adjourned on December 10,2006. Senator Charles Schumer indicated that he did not see Donohue's nomination being able to be confirmed by the Senate in the 110th Congress,when the Democrats have the Senate majority.
On December 13,2006,Pataki nominated her to a seat as a Judge of the New York Court of Claims. [5] She was confirmed that day by the State Senate for term expiring in March 2015. Court of Claims Judges preside over lawsuits against the State of New York and various independent state agencies. She took office as a judge after her term as lieutenant governor expired at midnight on December 31,2006. She retired from the Court of Claims in May,2009. [6]
1998 NYS Republican and Conservative Party Tickets
2002 NYS Republican and Conservative Party Tickets
2002 NYS Independence Party Ticket
Herman Carl McCall is an American politician of the Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator,McCall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 2002. McCall was the first African-American to be elected New York State Comptroller. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ,and is on the board of directors of several corporations. From October 17,2011,until his retirement on June 30,2019,McCall was chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees.
George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York from 1995 to 2007. 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.
Elizabeth Helen McCaughey,is an American politician who was the lieutenant governor of New York from 1995 to 1998,during the first term of Governor George Pataki. She unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for governor after Pataki dropped her from his 1998 ticket,and she ended up on the ballot under the Liberal Party line. In August 2016 the Donald Trump presidential campaign announced that she had joined the campaign as an economic adviser.
New York is a Democratic stronghold and is considered one of the "Big Three" Democratic strongholds alongside California and Illinois. The following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of New York:
The 2006 New York gubernatorial election took place on November 7,2006,to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of New York,concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections,then incumbent Republican governor George Pataki chose not to run for re-election in a fourth term. Democrat Eliot Spitzer,the New York Attorney General,won the election over former Republican state Assembly minority leader John Faso. As of 2024,this is the last time the Governor’s office in New York changed partisan control. This was the first open-seat election since 1982. Primary elections were held on September 12. This is the last gubernatorial election where any of the following counties voted Democratic:Genesee,Chautauqua,Cattaraugus,Niagara,Fulton,Steuben,Tioga &Schoharie.
Sandra L. Frankel is the former Supervisor of the Town of Brighton,Monroe County,New York. A former Brighton school board member and BOCES I Monroe Board of Education,Vice President of both,Frankel served for 20 years as town supervisor,the elected executive of an urban suburb of 35,000 population.
The lieutenant governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. Official duties dictated to the lieutenant governor under the present New York Constitution are to serve as president of the state senate,serve as acting governor in the absence of the governor from the state or the disability of the governor,or to become governor in the event of the governor's death,resignation or removal from office via impeachment. Additional statutory duties of the lieutenant governor are to serve on the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments,the State Defense Council,and on the board of trustees of the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The lieutenant governor of New York is the highest-paid lieutenant governor in the country.
The 2002 New York gubernatorial election was held on November 5,2002. Republican Governor George Pataki was re-elected to a third term,defeating Democrat Carl McCall and Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano,who ran on the Independence Party line. As of 2024,this was the last time a Republican won a statewide election in New York,and the last time Albany,Tompkins and Westchester counties have voted Republican in a statewide election.
Laureen Oliver is a US politician who co-founded the New York State Independence Party.
Mary Lou Rath is an American politician who served as a member of New York State Senate from 1993 to 2008. A Republican,she represented the state's 61st district,which consisted of parts of Erie County and all of Genesee County.
The 1998 New York gubernatorial election was an election for the state governorship held on November 3,1998. Incumbent Republican governor George Pataki was re-elected with 54.3% of the vote. This remains the last statewide election in New York where a Republican won a majority of the vote.
The 1958 New York state election was held on November 4,1958,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general,a judge of the New York Court of Appeals and a U.S. Senator,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1974 New York state election was held on November 5,1974,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general,two judges of the New York Court of Appeals and a U.S. Senator,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1970 New York state election was held on November 3,1970,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general and a U.S. Senator,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1946 New York state election was held on November 5,1946,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general,a U.S. Senator,the chief judge and an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1942 New York state election was held on November 3,1942,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general and two U.S. Representatives At-large,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1930 New York state election was held on November 4,1930,to elect the governor,the lieutenant governor,the state comptroller,the attorney general and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1895 New York state election was held on November 5,1895,to elect the Secretary of State,the State Comptroller,the Attorney General,the State Treasurer,the State Engineer and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals,as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. Besides,the voters were asked if they approved of the State's issuing bonds for $9,000,000.00 to spend on canal improvements,which the electorate answered in the affirmative.
The prevailing political ethos of the residents of upstate New York varies from that of their downstate counterparts.
The 191st New York State Legislature,consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly,met from January 4,1995,to December 31,1996,during the first and second years of George Pataki's governorship,in Albany.