John Faso
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John Faso is a Republican candidate for Governor of New York. He was a former member and minority leader of the New York State Assembly from 1998 until April 2002. Faso ran for state comptroller in 2002 but lost to Alan Hevesi, by a 50%-46% margin. He lives in Kinderhook with his wife Mary and their two children Nicholas and Margaret.
Early life
Faso attended Archbishop Molloy High School; graduated from State University of New York at Brockport and earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979, working full-time and going to law school at night.
Political life
He was first elected to the State Assembly from Kinderhook, Columbia County in upstate New York.
Faso was reportedly the frontrunner for the 1994 Republican nomination for New York State Comptroller and was on course to be nominated for the position at that year's Republican State Convention. He was asked to withdraw from the comptroller's race that year in order to allow Professor Herbert London to run for comptroller instead. London had been the 1990 Conservative Party nominee for Governor and was challenging then little-known State Senator George Pataki for the GOP nomination for governor. London was also the presumptive Conservative nominee for governor in 1994. With London dropping out of the governor's race to run for comptroller, Pataki was able to run as the nominee of the Republican and Conservative Parties for governor.
In late 1994, Faso served as a member of Pataki's transition team, where he chaired the budget committee. In this role, Faso drafted the first draft of Pataki's 1995 state budget proposal. The enacted budget for that year closed a $5 billion deficit and was the first to reduce state spending in decades. In 1995, Faso became the Ranking Republican Member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. A recognized expert on the state budget and finance, Faso was mentioned on several occasions as a potential state budget director in the Pataki Cabinet.
Faso ran a strong campaign for comptroller in 2002, losing narrowly to Hevesi. He has given up his role as minority leader during the campaign and he did not seek reelection to his Assembly seat in order to seek the comptroller's office. After leaving the Assembly, Faso became a partner in a national law firm and was appointed by Pataki as a member of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority. In this role, Faso works with other authority commissioners to stabilize Buffalo finances and oversee the management of the city's budget.
Since the 2002 race, Faso has kept up a statewide political presence and was reported to be a potential 2004 candidate for the U.S. Senate against Chuck Schumer, a nomination which went to then Assemblyman Howard Mills instead. Going into the 2006 statewide elections, Faso was considered to be a potential candidate for either comptroller or attorney general.
2006 Gubenatorial Race
In 2005, Faso announced his intention to run for governor. He positioned himself early as a conservative upstate candidate, while stressing his childhood roots in Long Island. He originally faced former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, former Secretary of State Randy Daniels, and Assemblyman Patrick Manning. Daniels and Manning both dropped out and Faso became the primary challenger to Weld. It has been reported that in early 2006, Weld offered Faso the chance to join his ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor, an offer Faso reportedly declined. Faso has gained increasing support from party leaders in various counties, including Westchester and Suffolk, both of which have large delegate counts to the state convention.
In late May 2006, Faso received the nomination of the Conservative Party for governor, which guaranteed him a spot on the November ballot. He has pledged to continue running for governor on the Conservative line if he loses the Republican primary to Weld. On the day he received the Conservative nomination, Faso announced his selection of Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
On June 1, 2006, the Republican State Convention voted 61% to 39% to endorse Faso. By achieving over 50 percent of the vote, Faso is the designated Republican Party candidate in the September primary against Weld, but Weld still had enough to force a primary. However, the late Spring nominations of John Faso by the Conservative Party and Weld by the Libertarian Party could be significant. As the Washington Post put it, "[n]ow it turns out whoever loses the GOP primary will stay in the race -- in a position likely to siphon votes from the Republican nominee." [link] For this reason, Weld was under tremendous pressure to drop out of the race. On June 5, Stephen J. Minarik, the chairman of the state Republican Party, who had been Weld's most prominent backer, called on Weld to withdraw in the interest of party unity. [link] Weld formally announced his withdrawal from the race, and his support of Faso, the following day. [link]
John Faso has made the dramatic increases in school property taxes a central theme of the campaign. In April, he became the first candidate to announce a comprehensive plan stop the growth in school taxes and has charged that Democrat Eliot Spitzer's plan for this issue would actually lead to a tax increase.
Faso was the original sponsor of charter school legislation and was a leading figure in the passage of Governor Pataki's proposal to create charter schools in New York State in 1998. He supports expanding the current cap on charter schools.
In recognition for his outstanding public service and commitment to fiscal responsibility, Faso received the “Guardian of Small Business” award from the National Federation of Independent Businesses in 1996, and the “Distinguished Public Service” award from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy in 1997.
2002 NYS Republican and Conservative State Tickets
- Governor: George Pataki
- Lieutenant Governor: Mary Donohue
- Comptroller: John Faso
- Attorney General: Dora Irizarry
- Governor: John Faso
- Lieutenant Governor: C. Scott Vanderhoef
- Comptroller: J. Christopher Callaghan
- Attorney General: Jeanine Pirro
- U.S. Senate: John Spencer
External links
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