George Elmer Pataki (; (born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the
53rd Governor of New York (1995–2006). A member of the
Republican Party, Pataki was a lawyer who was elected Mayor of his home town of Peekskill, later going on to be elected to
State Assembly, then
State Senate. In 1994, he ran for Governor against three-term incumbent
Mario Cuomo, defeating him by over a three-point margin as part of the
Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki, succeeding a three-term Governor, would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was one of only three Republican governors of New York elected since 1923, the others being
Thomas Dewey and
Nelson Rockefeller.