1.
Pierre Van Cortlandt
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Pierre Van Cortlandt was the first Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. He was first elected to the New York Assembly in March 1768, subsequently, he was a member of the Second Provincial Congress, 1775-1776, and Chairman of its Committee of Safety,1776. On July 9,1776, he was among thirty-eight delegates to ratify the Declaration of Independence at White Plains, as a Colonel, and later General, be commanded the Third Westchester Militia Regiment and later was advanced to be a General. Gen. George Washington ever referred to Pierre Van Cortlandt as his most trusted friend and ally. With NY Gov. George Clinton away from the state in active service, Lt. Gov. Van Cortlandt had full charge of the revolutionary government of the state. On November 25,1783 this earnest patriot accompanied General Washington on his triumphant ride into New York City and he was made an original honorary member of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati on July 6,1784. In 1787 he was elected President of the State Convention meeting in Poughkeepsie to ratify the Constitution of the United States and he was born in New York City, the son of Philip Van Cortlandt, and Catherine de Peyster. Pierres uncle Johannes de Peyster, Jr. was Mayor of New York City and his great uncle Jacobus Van Cortlandt was Mayor of New York City, 1719-1720. In 1697, King William III granted by Royal Charter, Van Cortlandt Manor to his grandfather, the Van Cortlandt Manor House was built sometime before 1732 but was not any owners principal residence until Pierre moved there in 1749. In 1748, Pierre inherited from his father the Van Cortlandt Manor House and he diversified and organized the Croton lands to develop income-producing tenant farms. Pierre maintained the Van Cortlandt Manor House and lands as a farmer/planter, upon the survey of the Manor of Cortlandt, Annsville and lands adjoining constituted a portion of Front Lot No. 10, the river portion lot that was bequeathed to Gertrude Beekman, Pierres aunt and daughter and it was on 340 acres of Gertrudes land where Pierre built the Upper Manor House and farm. Two miles to the north was Front Lot No,10, on which another Van Cortlandt mansion, Oldstone, was built, and later near the bay the Fort Independence Hotel. Fort Independence was located on the bluff on the western end of Roa Hook. Where a spacious mansion was built about 1769. “The situation of the Van Cortlandt estate is very fine, covering, as it does, some of the most graceful undulations of a hilly district, diversified with the richest scenery. The old brick mansion erected A. D.1773, occupies a very sequestered and romantic spot on the side of the post road, immediately above the vale of Annsville. ”In 1749, Pierre turned the familys simple hunting lodge into an elegant residence known as Van Cortlandt Manor House. The house remained in the Van Cortlandt family until 1945 and was purchased in 1953 by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to assure its preservation, the restored manor house was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1961
2.
Government of New York (state)
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Analogously to the United States federal government, it is composed of three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. The head of the executive is the Governor, the Legislature consists of the Senate and the Assembly, the state is also divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, which are all municipal corporations with their own government. There are also numerous decisions, opinions, and rulings of state agencies, the New York State Legislature is bicameral and consists of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Assembly consists of 150 members, the Senate varies in its number of members, the Legislature is empowered to make laws, subject to the Governors power to veto a bill. However, the veto may be overridden by the Legislature if there is a majority in favor of overriding in each House. Furthermore, it has the power to propose amendments to the New York Constitution by a majority vote, if so proposed, the amendment becomes valid if agreed to by the voters at a referendum. The session laws are published in the official Laws of New York, the permanent laws of a general nature are codified in the Consolidated Laws of New York. The New York State Unified Court System interprets and applies the law of New York, ensures equal justice under law, the court system in New York tends to produce mild confusion for outsiders. In general, the system is composed of the trial courts, consisting of the superior courts and the local courts. The Supreme Court also acts as the appellate court for many cases. The New York City courts make up the largest local court system, the state is divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, which are all municipal corporations with their own government that provide most local government services. Each such government is granted varying home rule powers as provided by the New York Constitution, New York has 62 counties, which are subdivided into 932 towns and 62 cities, it also has 10 Indian reservations. In total, the state has over 3400 active local governments, native Americans governments are significantly independent of the state and its local governments. New York cannot interfere with tribal self-government, but may conduct on tribal territory concerning non-Native Americans. For example, federal law forbids states and local authorities to tax Indian lands, however, politics of New York Elections in New York Law of New York NY. gov New York Open Data Portal
3.
George Pataki
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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 town of Peekskill, later going on to be elected to State Assembly. In 1994, Pataki ran for governor against three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo, Pataki, as of January 2017 is the last Republican to serve as Governor of New York. In early 2015, Pataki began exploring a candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016, on December 29,2015, Pataki withdrew his presidential candidacy. Pataki was born in Peekskill, New York, Patakis paternal grandfather was János Pataki of Aranyos-Apáti, Austria-Hungary, who came to the United States in 1908 and worked in a hat factory. János had married Erzsébet, also Hungarian-born, around 1904 and their son, Patakis father, was Louis P. Pataki, a mailman and volunteer fire chief, who ran the Pataki Farm. Patakis maternal grandfather was Matteo Laganà, who married Agnes Lynch of County Louth and their daughter, Margaret Lagana, is Patakis mother. Pataki has a brother, Louis. George Pataki can still speak a little Hungarian today, as well as Spanish, French, after graduating from Peekskill High School, Pataki entered Yale University with George W. Bush in 1964 on an academic scholarship, and graduated in three years. While there Pataki served as Chairman of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union and he received his J. D. from Columbia Law School in 1970. While practicing law at Plunkett and Jaffe, P. C. in Peekskill, finnegan, who would go on to be the architect of Patakis ascendancy to power. Finnegan would go on to manage Patakis campaigns for Mayor, State Assembly, State Senate, finnegan was then appointed chief counsel to the governor in 1995, and played the key role in developing and negotiating nearly all of Patakis early legislative success. George Pataki first won elected office in November 1981, Pataki was elected Mayor of the City of Peekskill, which is located in the Northwestern part of Westchester County. Pataki defeated the Democratic incumbent Fred Bianco Jr. winning 70% of the vote, in November 1983, Pataki was re-elected Mayor, winning 74% of the vote. In November 1984, George Pataki was elected to the New York State Assembly, by defeating the one-term Democratic incumbent William J. Ryan, in November 1986, Pataki defeated Ryan in a rematch, capturing 63% of the vote. Pataki won a term in November 1988, winning 74% of the vote against Democratic candidate Mark Zinna. Pataki won a fourth and final term in November 1990, winning over 90% of the vote and he was an assemblyman in the 186th, 187th, 188th and 189th New York State Legislatures. From 1983 to 1992, the 91st Assembly district included parts of Westchester, Orange, Rockland, however, in 1992, Assembly Democrats substantially redrew the district boundaries, placing the newly renamed 90th Assembly district entirely within Westchester County
4.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
5.
Eliot Spitzer
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Prior to being elected governor of New York, he was elected to two four-year terms as the Attorney General of New York from 1999 to 2006. Spitzer grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York and he received a Bachelors degree at Princeton University and his Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School. Spitzer resigned as New Yorks governor in 2008 in the midst of a scandal concerning his solicitation of prostitutes, after his resignation, he has worked as a television host and an adjunct instructor, Spitzer also ran for office and made private investments in a start-up company. Spitzer was born on June 10,1959, in the Bronx, the son of Anne, an English literature professor, and Bernard Spitzer and his paternal grandparents were Galician Jews, born in Tluste, Poland. His maternal grandparents, born in the 1890s, were Jewish immigrants from Palestine, Spitzer is the youngest of three children. He was raised in the affluent Riverdale section of The Bronx in New York City and his family was not religious, and Spitzer did not have a Bar Mitzvah. He is a 1977 graduate of Horace Mann School, after scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Spitzer attended Princeton University and majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. At Princeton, he was elected chairman of the student government. He has reported he received a score on the Law School Admission Test, and went on to attend Harvard Law School. Spitzer was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and he stayed there for less than two years before leaving to join the New York County District Attorneys office. Spitzer joined the staff of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau and his biggest case came in 1992, when Spitzer led the investigation that ended the Gambino crime familys organized crime control of Manhattans trucking and garment industries. Spitzer devised a plan to set up his own sweatshop in the garment district, turning out shirts, pants and sweaters. The shop manager eventually got close to the Gambinos, and officials were able to plant a bug in their office, the Gambinos, rather than being charged with extortion – which was hard to prove – were charged with antitrust violations. Spitzer left the District Attorneys office in 1992 to work at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, from 1994 to 1998 he worked at the law firm Constantine and Partners on a number of consumer rights and antitrust cases. When he announced his intention the Senate election was almost two years in the future, Abrams won the nomination in the Democratic primary but narrowly lost to DAmato in the general election in November 1992. Ten months later, in September,1993, Abrams announced that he would resign his position as Attorney General as of December 31,1993, although he still had one year remaining in his term. To fill this vacancy the New York State Legislature elected Assemblyman G. Oliver Koppell to serve out the remainder of the Attorney Generals term during 1993, at the time, Spitzer was a young and relatively unknown defense attorney representing white-collar criminals. When he announced his campaign Spitzer suggested that, if elected, Spitzer was the only candidate to support the death penalty
6.
Nelson Rockefeller
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Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was an American businessman and politician. He served as the 41st Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977 and he also served in the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. A member of the wealthy Rockefeller family, he was also an art collector. Rockefeller, a Republican, was considered politically liberal and progressive. He successfully altered the political platform of the Republican Party just before the 1960 Republican Convention in what is termed the Treaty of Fifth Avenue, in his time, liberals in the Republican Party were called Rockefeller Republicans. After unsuccessfully seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 1960,1964, Rockefeller did not join the 1976 Republican national ticket with Ford, marking his retirement from politics. Ford later selected then-Senator Bob Dole from Kansas for his new running mate but ultimately lost the election to Democrat Jimmy Carter and his running mate, Rockefeller remains, as of 2017, the last Vice President who declined to seek re-election. As a businessman he was president and later chairman of Rockefeller Center, Inc. Rockefeller assembled a significant art collection and promoted public access to the arts. He served as trustee, treasurer, and president of the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller was born in 1908 in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was the son of financier and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and philanthropist. He had a sister, Abby, and four brothers, John III, Laurance, Winthrop and their father John Jr. was the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John Davison Rockefeller Sr. and schoolteacher Laura Celestia Cettie Spelman. Their mother Abby was a daughter of Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, Rockefeller received his elementary, middle and high school education at the Lincoln School, an experimental school administered by Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1930 he graduated cum laude with an A. B. in economics from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Casque and Gauntlet, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Zeta chapter of the Psi Upsilon. Following his graduation, he worked in a number of family-related businesses, including Chase National Bank, Rockefeller Center, Inc. From 1932 to 1979 he served as a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, where he served as treasurer, 1935–39. He and his four brothers established the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropy, in 1940, where he served as trustee, 1940–75 and 1977–79, Rockefeller was a patient of famous psychic Edgar Cayce. Rockefeller served as a member of the Westchester County Board of Health and his service with Creole Petroleum led to his deep, lifelong interest in Latin America. He became fluent in the Spanish language, Rockefeller was charged with overseeing a program of U. S
7.
Sam Hoyt
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Sam Hoyt III is a Democratic politician and economic development professional from New York State. Hoyt was a member of the New York State Assembly and he represented the 144th Assembly district, consisting of part of Buffalo, New York, and all of Grand Island, New York, from 1992 to 2011. Hoyt was first elected to succeed his father, William Hoyt. He is also Interim Chairman of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, sam’s career in public service reflects community-centric change. He also attended Ohio Wesleyan University, prior to entering elected office, Hoyt served as Western New York regional director for U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and was marketing and promotions director for the Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball team and he represented the 144th Assembly District, encompassing part of Buffalo, New York, and all of Grand Island, New York from 1992 to 2011. Sam was first elected in a 1992 special election following the death of his father, Hoyt, who held the office prior to him. From 1992 to 2010, Sam won all elections for his seat with voting percentages between 51% to 79% in his favor. Sams complete electoral history has been tracked, online, at Our Campaigns, there were also 31 write-in votes in this election, accounting for 0. 10%. Sam also received votes on both the Independent and Working Family lines in this election, Sam also ran on the Liberal ticket in this election. In the Assembly, Hoyt served as Majority Whip, as a senior member of the Assembly, he chaired several Assembly committees. In 2007, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver appointed Hoyt as the Chairman of the Assembly Local Governments Committee, prior to becoming chairman of this committee, Hoyt was the Chairman of the Assembly Oversight, Analysis and Investigations Committee. He is also both a former Chairman of the Assembly Task Force on Demographics and Reapportionment, and the Assembly Alcoholism and he also co-chaired both the Anti-Flipping and High Speed Rail Task Forces. Hoyt concentrated on the redevelopment of Upstate New York cities, the passage of the Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act, Land Bank Program, and State Historic Preservation Tax Credit are among his legislative accomplishments. In 2009, Hoyt sponsored legislation that was passed to allow the City of Buffalo school district to start the phase of its Joint Schools reconstruction project. As a lifelong environmentalist, in 2008, Hoyt passed a new law to protect old growth forests, the same year, Hoyt sponsored a new law that passed to fund bike paths across New York State, and has worked for their protection. An advocate of equality, Hoyt supported the Marriage Equality Act. In 2006, Sam proposed that an area between the Peace Bridge to Canada and Porter Avenue be transformed into a park
8.
Andrew Cuomo
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Andrew Mark Cuomo is an American politician and attorney who has been the 56th Governor of New York since January 1,2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in 2010, holding the position his father, Mario Cuomo. Born in Queens, New York City, Cuomo is a graduate of Fordham University and Albany Law School of Union University, New York in New York. He began his working as the campaign manager for his father. He founded HELP USA, and was appointed Chair of the New York City Homeless Commission, in 1993, Cuomo joined the Clinton Administration, when he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development in the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. From 1997 to 2001, he was U. S. Secretary of Housing, in 2006, Cuomo was elected Attorney General of New York. In May 2010, Cuomo announced he was running for Governor in the 2010 election, during his first term, New York legalized same-sex marriage and toughened gun control. In 2014, he was elected to a term with 54% of the vote. Cuomo was born on December 6,1957, in the New York City borough of Queens and his parents were both of Italian descent, his paternal grandparents were from Nocera Inferiore and Tramonti in South Italy, while his maternal grandparents were both from Sicily. His younger brother is CNN journalist Chris Cuomo and he graduated from St. Gerard Majellas School in 1971 and Archbishop Molloy High School in 1975. He received a B. A. from Fordham University in 1979, from 1984 to 1985, Cuomo was a New York assistant district attorney, and briefly worked at the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. He founded Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged in 1986 and left his law firm to run HELP full-time in 1988, budgets enacted during his term contained initiatives to increase the supply of affordable housing and home ownership, and to create jobs and economic development. During Cuomos tenure as HUD Secretary, he called for an increase in home ownership and he also pushed government-sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy more home loans issued to poor homeowners, in an attempt to end discrimination against minorities. Some believe that this lead to the recent subprime mortgage crisis. Edward J. Pinto, former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae, Cuomo was pushing mortgage bankers to make loans and basically saying you have to offer a loan to everybody. But others disagree with the assessment that Cuomo caused the crisis, dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said Cuomo was a contributor in terms of him being a cheerleader, but I dont think we can pin too much blame on him. He championed a new program called Community Builders, created without appropriation by Congress, in a June 16,1999, speech, Cuomo declared that one purpose of the program was to fight against HUDs abolition. In August 1999, Community Builders distributed a letter to community groups to fight against proposed tax cuts, in 1999, Gaffneys office concluded that most Community Builders goals were activities rather than actual accomplishments
9.
Green Party of the United States
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The Green Party of the United States is a green and progressive political party in the United States. On the political spectrum the party is seen as left-wing. The GPUS was founded in 2001 as the evolution of the Association of State Green Parties, the ASGP had increasingly distanced itself from the G/GPUSA in the late 1990s. The Greens gained widespread attention during the 2000 presidential election. Nader was vilified by many Democrats and even some Greens, who accused him of spoiling the election for Al Gore, the degree of Naders impact on the 2000 election remains controversial. The GPUS had several members elected in state legislatures, including in California, Maine, a number of Greens around the United States hold positions on the municipal level, including on school boards, city councils and as mayors. The organization conducted grassroots organizing efforts, educational activities, and electoral campaigns and those who saw electoral strategies as a crucial engine of social change. The G/GPUSA was recognized by the FEC as a political party in 1991. The compromise agreement subsequently collapsed and two Green party organizations have co-existed in the United States since, the Green Politics Network was organized in 1990 and The National Association of Statewide Green Parties formed by 1994. Divisions between those pressing to break onto the political stage and those aiming to grow roots at the local level continued to widen during the 1990s. The Association of State Green Parties encouraged and backed Naders presidential runs in 1996 and 2000, by 2001, the push to separate electoral activity from the G/GPUSA issue-based organizing led to the Boston Proposal and subsequent rise of the Green Party of the United States. The G/GPUSA lost most of its affiliates in the following months, in 2016, Mark Salazar set a new record for a Green Party nominee for U. S. Congress. Running in the Arizona 8th district, against incumbent Republican Congressman Trent Franks, the GPUS follows the ideals of green politics, which are based on the Four Pillars of the Green Party, Ecological wisdom, Social justice, Grassroots democracy and Nonviolence. An avocado is Green on the outside and Green on the inside and it goes on to explain that Greens have a vital role in bringing Democracy to the otherwise undemocratic two party system of the U. S. The Green Party does not accept donations from corporations, political committees,527 organizations or soft money. The partys platforms and rhetoric harshly criticize any corporate influence and control over government, media, the state parties also appoint delegates to serve on the various standing committees of the GNC. The National Committee elects a Steering Committee of seven Co-chairs, a Secretary, the National Committee performs most of its business online, but also holds an Annual National Meeting to conduct business in person. Californians have elected 55 of the 226 office-holding Greens nationwide as of June 2007, other states with high numbers of Green elected officials include Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Maine
