GOV. PATAKI, under increasing attack for weak leadership and a lack of interest in state government, may soon launch his own campaign to “reform” the state, The Post has learned.
Pataki is being urged by some advisers to “get out in front” of the growing calls for reform of what is now widely described as the “dysfunctional” state government.
Insiders said Pataki has been reluctant to embrace such an effort because, after 10 years at the helm of state government, he believes it will be difficult for him to be seen as a genuine “reformer.”
The insiders also say Pataki has resisted leading a reform effort because his focus appears to be to what he may do when his term is up in 2006.
Government under Pataki is now regularly described as under the influence of powerful lobbyists who appear to have near-exclusive access to the governor and key legislative leaders.
Those urging Pataki to pick up the mantle of reform want him to do so in his State of the State address in January.
“If the governor decides to get on the reform bandwagon, that’ll be a sign he’s really thinking about running for re-election in 2006,” said an administration insider.
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the all-but-certain Democratic gubernatorial candidate, is expected to make reforming state government the focus of his campaign.
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The Pataki administration showed “an incredible lack of oversight” and “all kinds of bad judgment” when it allowed the state Canal Corp. to sell exclusive development rights to a Buffalo businessman, according to a report slated for release today.
The scathing, 75-page report will be released by Spitzer and state Inspector General Jill Konviser-Levine this morning at a Buffalo press conference.
A source familiar with the findings said investigators were struck by the poor and unsophisticated decision-making by state officials when, in 2001, they allowed Richard Hutchens to purchase the rights to develop homes along the 524-mile, state-owned Erie Canal system for a mere $30,000.
However, the source said investigators could find no evidence of criminal activity.
The rights were later rescinded by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who said the contract appeared to have been steered to Hutchens.