The first northeastern socially moderate candidate bites the dust. Manchester Union-Leader:

He didn’t directly take himself out of presidential contention, but former New York Gov. George Pataki told key Granite State Republicans last night he won’t object if they want to closely examine and endorse other candidates.

At a private dinner in a secluded alcove at Fratello’s Italian Ristorante in Manchester on Tuesday night, Pataki told about a dozen activists and uncommited GOP leaders that “he’s going to let the dust settle and see where we are in a few months,” House Republican Leader Michael Whalley told UnionLeader.com today.

Pataki said that “he’s not going to actively campaign for President, indefinitely,” said a person at the dinner who asked not to be named. “He never came out and said, ‘I’m not running for President,’ but everybody basically saw the handwriting on the wall, which is he’s out. When you tell your activists it’s OK to go support other candidates, the handwriting is on the wall.”

Hat tip to Elana Levin.

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James Pindell of Primary Source has a couple interesting items today.

Former New York Governor George Pataki packs up his New Hampshire office and puts it up on craigslist.

To a lot of fanfare last fall, former New York Governor George Pataki opened a New Hampshire office for his political action committee. He was the first potential presidential candidate to open an office in the state and for a long time he was the only one.

But in recent months he packed up his Manchester office and moved it to his hometown of Peekskill, N.Y., where his PAC is now based. And as for the Manchester office, it is now available for any other presidential candidate.

In fact, the listing is on Craigslist.

Does this mean that support in New Hampshire lacky for George Pataki? Polling shows the former New York governor with little support across the board — highest polled support is three percent, mostly one point showings, and a lot of goose eggs.

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Texas Congressman Ron Paul may not be sparking much interest with Republicans in early polling but he has libertarians fawning over a potential Paul candidacy.

Paul will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum on February 25 — an event sponsored by libertarian activsts — that includes the 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate, Michael Bednarik.

In 1988, Paul was the Libertarian Party’s candidate.

If Paul keeps this up, one may question which party’s nomination he intends to seek in 2008. It would be a development welcomed by John Cox supporters, however.

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Following up on Matt O’s post on where the Republican candidates stand, here is a longer breakdown of some statements on the Iraq war by McCain, Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, Gingrich, Pataki, and Brownback. It’s long, so the text is in the extended entry.

McCain, Giuliani, and Gingrich are for a troop surge. Romney was against a troop surge before he was for it (surprise surprise). Pataki and Brownback seem to be against a surge, though I wouldn’t characterize their opposition as exactly Kucinich-like. McCain had called for a deployment of 100,000 new troops to Iraq in December, but has since scaled back to the Bush/Lieberman number of 30,000 (ThinkProgress has more).

Technorati Tags: George Pataki, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback

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The outgoing New York State Assembly Whip, Republican Pat Casale, on a George Pataki presidency:

Thursday, he said the governor did a terrible job during his term, citing increased taxes and a laundry list of other negative developments. He called the governor, who also leaves office in a few days, “the biggest disappointment of my political life.”

“The only thing that bothers me about George Pataki leaving is that he wants to be president,” Casale said. “That would be a disaster for America.” [emphasis added]

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New York Governor George Pataki has decided not to pardon or grant clemency to any prisoners this year.

Gov. George Pataki, leaving office next month and eyeing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, won’t be granting clemency to any prisoners this year.

It marks the third time in Pataki’s 12-year tenure that he has issued no clemencies during the holiday season. None was granted in 1998 or 2004.

It looks like Pataki is trying to come across as a law and order Republican. He doesn’t want to be seen as being soft on crime by granting clemency to prisoners. He’s only “issued 32 clemencies or pardons” in twelve years as governor, a paltry sum. Unless any of those thirty-two turned out to be brutal recidivists, Pataki is probably safe from criticism hardline law and order Republicans on his actions as governor vis a vis pardons and clemency.

Technorati Tags: George Pataki

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