The Dance of the Governors,
And Selected Short Subjects

By Henry J. Stern
January 10, 2005

Near the end of Thursday's column, I referenced the fact that Rebecca Mead of The New Yorker had written an informative and interesting story about Bernie Kerik and other public officials who have fallen from grace, which quoted this blog and also alluded to park names.    Her article is shorter than this column.   If you have not yet read it, and would like to, link here.
 
Friday's column about Governor Pataki's State of the State speech, "L'etat, c'est moi," was published in today's New York Sun (p.9).  Let me correct one point, which was called to my attention by readers E.J. McMahon, Julian Stein, Frank Mauro, Jerry Skurnik and Bob Ward. (Anyone who finds an error or omission is being helpful, and deserves appropriate credit.)

ORDER OF SUCCESSION

Unlike the United States of America, the State of New York makes no provision for the replacement of a sitting lieutenant governor who dies, resigns or goes to jail.  This gap relates in part to the inconsequentiality of the office.  If there is no lieutenant governor, the temporary president of the State Senate (Joseph Bruno) is next in line to fill the vacancy and serve as governor.  Our western neighbor, New Jersey, does not have a lieutenant governor at all, so when Governor James McGreevey resigned in November, his successor was Richard Codey, the State Senate president, who will be acting governor until the term ends in December 2005.  Our neighbor to the east, Connecticut, had an elected  lieutenant governor, M. Jodi Rell.  She became governor when Governor John Rowland was compelled to resign for serious ethical lapses.  She will serve to January 2007.
 
Under New York State law, if Ms. Donohue resigns to return to the judiciary, or for any other reason, the statutory successor to Governor Pataki will be Mr. Bruno, who now presides over the Senate.  The law leaves little room for manipulation through substitution.  Although Pataki might like to resign if he were to get a better job, such good fortune for him will depend entirely on President Bush.  It is unlikely that he would take out a sitting Republican governor of a large blue state.
 
The White House would probably prefer to let Pataki run again in 2006, to try to save the seat.  Later he could try to get a better job from Jeb, who we tell you now will be the insiders' choice in 2008.   The idea of fraternal succession to the presidency first arose in 1961, when JFK is said to have brought his brother, the attorney general, a bracelet, inscribed "When I'm through, how about you?"
 
RESIGNING GOVERNORS

Two governors of New York State have resigned in recent generations.  Herbert H. Lehman left on December 2, 1942 to become head of UNRRA (the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency).  Lt. Gov. Charles Poletti, the state's first Italian-American governor, then served twenty-nine days, until Gov. Thomas E. Dewey was sworn in.  BTW, Dewey served three four-year terms and did not seek a fourth, joining a Wall Street law firm which was henceforth known as Dewey, Ballantine, et al.  He was succeeded in Albany by Averell Harriman, who served one term and then was defeated by someone even richer than he was.

Nelson Rockefeller resigned on Dec 18, 1973, with a little more than a year to go in his fourth term, so that Lt. Gov. Malcolm Wilson could have the advantage of incumbency in his 1974 race against Hugh Carey.  Wilson lost anyway. Carey served two terms, and then stepped aside for Mario Cuomo.
 
Rockefeller, who said he never wanted to be vice president of anything, did accept President Ford's nomination to be vice president of the United States after the forced departure of both President Nixon and Vice President Agnew.  He served about two years as vice president, but was dumped from the Republican ticket in 1976, when President Ford chose Senator Robert Dole as his running mate at the behest of conservative Republicans.  It is alleged that one Dick Cheney, then chief of staff to the president, had a role in that political coup.  By removing Rockefeller, they cleared the way for Ronald Reagan to run in 1980.
 
A HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL

In a column in today's Sun, William F. Hammond, Jr. calls attention to State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's prediction of hard times ahead for New York State's economy and severe stains on its budget.   The gloomy forecast reminds me of  Terminator 1, when Linda Hamilton took her son, Michael Biehn, from Los Angeles to the mountains because she was aware that Los Angeles would be destroyed in a nuclear war.  That film, made in 1984, is the best of the three.  If you haven't seen it, do so on DVD.  As the world knows, the Terminator, a cyborg, was sent back from the future to kill her and the child, so the boy   would not grow up to lead the underground resistance to the machines who ruled the world. T-1 was a robot, dressed as a human, memorably played by Arnold Schwarzenegger before he switched to more pleasant roles in preparation for his next career.  Hasta la vista.
 
STATE OF THE CITY – 2005

Tomorrow Mayor Bloomberg will deliver his fourth State of the City message at Hostos College in the Bronx.  Last year he was in a film studio in Queens, and the year before that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  We await his remarks.   Speaker Gifford Miller, a mayoral aspirant, will, according to the Sun, deliver an "immediate rebuttal."  That would be quite an achievement, since he doesn't know yet what the mayor is going to say, but the speaker has never been at a loss for words.