- Pataki didn't speak to Giuliani for weeks after winning the 1994 NY governor's race, per a new book.
- In the book "Giuliani," Andrew Kirtzman detailed the then-mayor's decision to endorse Mario Cuomo.
When Rudy Giuliani won the New York City mayoral office in 1993, it was seen as huge breakthrough for the Republican Party in the overwhelmingly Democratic metropolis.
Although New York Republicans in 1994 could look to then-GOP Sen. Al D'Amato in Washington, DC, while also boasting control of the New York State Senate, their power base in New York City was largely centered in Staten Island.
In 1994, the party was eager to retake the Governor's Mansion after twelve years of then-Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo holding the office, and they nominated then-state Sen. George Pataki as their standard-bearer.
But in a major twist, Giuliani would go on to endorse Cuomo — the father of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — for a fourth term in office.
And after Pataki bested Cuomo that November, the Republican governor-elect didn't speak to Giuliani for several weeks, according to a new book.
Giuliani said that he backed the elder Cuomo — a Queens native — due to his strong commitment to New York City, but Pataki's team needled him over the cross-party endorsement before and after the election, which the writer Andrew Kirtzman detailed in his new book, "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor."
Pataki eagerly sought Giuliani's support in the gubernatorial race, but the then-mayor didn't make himself readily available for the GOP contender, according to the book.
"Pataki courted Giuliani's endorsement, which should have been a given for a fellow Republican. But the mayor was proving elusive, at one point making the candidate wait two hours on a bench at City Hall while Giuliani visited a crime scene. Pataki gave up and left," Kirtzman wrote.
There was so much anticipation behind Giuliani's decision that television stations interrupted regularly-scheduled programs to broadcast the late October press conference, with megastar Oprah Winfrey's talk show even being preempted.
"From my point of view, as the mayor of New York City, the question that I have to ask is, 'Who has the best chance in the next four years of successfully fighting for our interests? Who understands them, and who will make the best case for it?'" Giuliani said during his announcement.
He continued: "Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It's a matter of choice. My choice is Mario Cuomo."
Giuliani then proceeded to blast Pataki on television.
"Senator Pataki has almost uniformly voted against the interests of the city and often the metropolitan region ... Mario Cuomo is his own man. I prefer dealing with someone who is his own man," he said at the time.
Pataki's polling lead morphed into a deficit after the Giuliani endorsement, as one of the state's top Republicans had backed the state's leading Democrat in dramatic fashion.
But according to Kirtzman, a D'Amato strategist devised a plan rooted in revving up anti-New York City sentiment among Upstate GOP voters "by claiming the endorsement was part of a secret deal in which Giuliani backed Cuomo in exchange for massive amounts of state aid."
Pataki would go to on defeat Cuomo — who had long been seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate — by three-percentage points.
"Giuliani had made the Cuomo campaign all about him, and brought it crashing down, along with Giuliani's political fortunes," Kirtzman wrote.
"Giuliani was scarred — Pataki refused to speak to him for weeks," he added.
In later years, the two men worked together in the recovery efforts after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Pataki would go on to serve as governor until December 2006; in December 2015, he ended his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.