Most citizens can't name the Lieutenant Governor (Mary O. Donahue) and don't know what she is supposed to do (serve as President of the state Senate, vote in case of a tie, act as Governor if Mr. Pataki leaves the state and become Governor in case he resigns or dies). Mainly, the LG-ship is whatever the incumbent is allowed to make it, with the permission of the governor. Ms. Donahue heads a number of policy task forces, but it says a lot that her official website's section on the history of the office is basically a narrative of the architecture and interior design of her offices in the Capitol building.
But the position may come front and center very soon. Rumors are again circulating that Governor Pataki will be using the coming Republican National Convention in New York City to audition for an appointment in a second Bush administration. He is said to particularly be interested in being appointed Ambassador to the United Nations. Several Long Island public officials are openly considering making runs for unspecified statewide offices in 2006, so maybe it's time to consider the status of our designated successor.
There's been a wide variety in the talent and motivations of people who've run for Lieutenant Governor over the last century. As FDR's lieutenant, Herbert Lehman ran the state government for long periods while the future president left for polio treatments at his spa in Georgia. After World War I, Nassau Republicans consolidated their power and were rewarded by being allowed to name their County Chairman, Jeremiah Wood, as candidate for Lieutenant Governor on the winning 1920 ticket. After serving his term, Wood went back to the more influential position of counsel to the Hempstead Town Board. In the 1970s, Huntington Supervisor Jerome Ambro and Nassau County Executive Ralph Caso ran for the job to show that they had the chops for higher office, with mixed results.
It isn't just New Yorkers who don't know exactly what to make of this mainly honorary position. It's hard for some people to imagine this today, but John Kerry was elected Lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1982 with one of the funniest political campaigns of the past quarter century. His hilarious television ads asked, "What exactly does a Lieutenant Governor do?" and featured an actor in the statehouse cutting out paper dolls and holding mock debates all alone with a stuffed toy. His winning theme was "the Lieutenant Governor should be part of the government."
Forty-two states maintain the elected position of Lieutenant Governor. Since 1950, New York has had a strange hybrid system in which the LG candidates are independently nominated but elected as official sidekicks to the nominee for Governor.
To be continued next week.
