The Lieutenant Governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the government of New York State. It is the second highest ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four year term. Official duties dictated to the lieutenant governor under the present state constitution are to serve as President of the State Senate, serve as acting governor in the absence of the governor from the state or the disability of the governor, or to become governor in the event of the governor's death, resignation or removal from office via impeachment. Additional statutory duties of the lieutenant governor are to serve on the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments, the State Defense Council, and on the Board of Trustees of the College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
The office is currently held by Robert Duffy.
Most lieutenant governors take on other duties as assigned to them by the governor. For example, Mary Donohue took on duties in the areas of small business, school violence, and land use planning, along with serving as a surrogate speaker for the governor in upstate New York. Donohue's predecessor, Betsy McCaughey Ross, worked on Medicare and education policy, prior to her falling out with Gov. George Pataki. Democrat Stan Lundine, who served under Gov. Mario Cuomo, was active on technology and housing issues during his two terms in office.
While governor and lieutenant governor are elected by a single joint vote in the general election, they run separately in the primaries. In 1982, Mario Cuomo won the Democratic nomination for governor, but his running mate H. Carl McCall lost the lieutenant governor nomination to Alfred DelBello. DelBello was elected with Cuomo, but resigned in 1985 complaining that Cuomo did not give him anything to do.
McCaughey Ross had been elected on a ticket with Pataki in 1994 but soon broke with him on state policy. He dropped her from his 1998 re-election ticket and she became a Democrat and ran for governor on the Liberal ticket.
Prior to Paterson succeeding Eliot Spitzer on March 17, 2008, the last lieutenant governor to succeed to the governorship was Malcolm Wilson following the 1973 resignation of Nelson Rockefeller. Mario Cuomo was the last lieutenant governor to be elected governor.
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