George Pataki

George Elmer Pataki is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York . 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, Pataki ran for Governor against threeterm incumbent Mario Cuomo, defeating him by over a threepoint margin as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki, succeeding a threeterm Governor, would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was the third Republican Governor of New York elected since 1923, the other two being Thomas Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller.

Pataki was born in Peekskill, New York. Patakis paternal grandfather was Jnos Pataki of AranyosApti, AustriaHungary, who came to the United States in 1908 and worked in a hat factory. Jnos had married Erzsbet , also Hungarianborn, around 1904. Their son, Patakis father, was Louis P. Pataki , a mailman and volunteer fire chief, who ran the Pataki Farm. Patakis maternal grandfather was Matteo Lagan , who married Agnes Lynch of County Louth, Ireland around 1914. Their daughter, Margaret Lagana, is Patakis mother. Pataki has an older brother, Louis. George Pataki can still speak a little Hungarian today, as well as Spanish, French, and German.

Source: Wikipedia