NEW YORK - Despite being one of the first candidates to announce for the 2016 Presidential election, former New York Governor George Pataki has found himself fighting for relevance.
A rare breed of moderate Mid-Atlantic Republicans that took power in the 1994 elections, Pataki has struggled to make noise in the hotly contested race thus far, where he has campaigned heavily in New Hampshire in hopes of appealing to the state's more centrist primary electorate.
The New York Times recently reported on Pataki's predicament:
As former Gov. George E. Pataki of New York strolled through the luncheon for seniors, bending his 6-foot-5 frame downward to make small talk over a soundtrack of square-dance music, he earned a rare smile of recognition. A retired high school teacher, Raymond Harmacinski, began to praise Mr. Pataki's record when a note of uncertainty crept into his voice.
"I followed you when - you weren't governor when they hit the towers?"
Mr. Pataki quickly assured the man that he had, in fact, been in office on Sept. 11, 2001. "I was," he said. "I was governor then."
Mr. Pataki spends a lot of time these days reminding voters that he used to run the State of New York. The former three-term governor faces vast obstacles in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, but none may be more daunting than the electorate's fleeting memory.
In a field dominated by the media's infatuation with Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, it is easy to understand why Mr. Pataki has faced difficulty in obtaining the American people's attention.
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