Former New York Gov. George Pataki said he will officially announce his intentions about mounting a campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination on May 28, adding that he's not worried much about a crowded field of potential challengers.
"You can't worry about what you can't control," Pataki, who served three terms as governor from 1995 through 2007 and who has run in two other presidential campaigns, said Thursday on
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "You can control your ideas, your vision and how hard you work."
Nobody thought he had a chance when he ran against and defeated former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Pataki said. Looking back, he said, in 75 years there have only been two New York Republican governors — himself and Nelson Rockefeller — so "the odds don't deter me."
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Pataki also rejected concerns that he may be "too moderate" for Republican voters.
"I am the only person who has been elected running on the conservative party line as a conservative," said Pataki, 68. "Look at my record ... I have no doubt when I lay my ideas out there and go through my background and what I've been able to do, people will say, this is a guy who could lead our country well."
And the former governor said he has an appeal beyond just a Republican electorate, which has given strong candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney difficulty in winning in a state like his.
On immigration, Pataki said that border control is needed, but it's impossible to send back 11 million illegal immigrants, so "we're going to have to find a way to provide legalized status here."
Pataki came under fire while governor for passing gun-control legislation, but says it was always his position that people are entitled to have guns.
"I was opposed to the Safe Act, which reduced the size of the clips to 10 and closed the background check loophole at gun shows," said Pataki. "We did that at the state level. At the federal level I think gun laws are fine. We have to enforce them."
Pataki, who said he is on the board of a group working to change the rail corridor from Washington to Boston through the use of magnetic levitation trains, said that he favors such a system in the United States.
The trains, used in Japan, go 318 miles an hour, have had thousands of riders, and have never had an accident or a fatality.
The Japanese government and companies are willing to come bring in the technology and help finance the track, and Pataki said he has no problem with that.
"It's their technology, but let's do it here instead of putting billions and billions into a failed infrastructure," he said.
Pataki also responded to a question asked of Jeb Bush, on whether he'd support the United States going to war in Iraq in 2003, knowing what is known now.
"No, I clearly would not," said Pataki.
"It was a mistake, the intelligence was wrong and the consequences have been terrible," he said. "In defense of President Bush, though, after the surge we created a stable Iraq and it was the decision by [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton and [President Barack] Obama to withdraw every single American troop."
A super PAC, We the People, Not Washington, was formed in January to support Pataki's bid, reports
The Wall Street Journal.
The former governor has explored two runs for president since he stepped down from his New York seat in 2007, and while his name hasn't yet been included in many polls, he's traveled on campaign jaunts to New Hampshire nearly 10 times since September and has opened a PAC office in downtown Manchester.
Thomas Rath, a former New Hampshire Republican Committeeman, said that Pataki has made more trips to the early primary state than other candidates, and noted that while Pataki has "played around running here before," he has never been "as committed as now."
Pataki, 69, won his uphill campaign for governor in 1994 against Cuomo, a Democrat, and his years in the office saw New York's credit rating improve while he cut taxes and reduced corporate tax rates.
Considered a social moderate, he has signed a gay rights bill and also favors abortion rights.
Pataki has also called for scaling back Medicaid, Medicare and other entitlement programs, and has said the federal tax code is "74,600-odd pages of incomprehensible gobbledygook written by lawyers controlled by lobbyists."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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