Exclusive: Pataki to Announce Presidential Campaign in August

Albany, New York - Mr. K and Thomas Ferdousi reporting.

Pundit Press has just learned from a high-ranking source within the New York State Republican Party that former Governor George Pataki will announce his campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination next month in South Carolina.

Our source shared a dinner with the former three-term Governor only days before meeting with us last night at a political event in Upstate, New York. He indicated that Governor Pataki will raise money with his new No American Debt organization for the primaries, which will be his "pot of gold."

The source added that Pataki looked significantly aged from the time he left office in 2007. Pataki has had contact with the official over the years.

Governor Pataki's presidential chances are undoubtedly low, but so were his odds in 1994 of defeating New York political powerhouse and then three-term governor Andrew Cuomo straight from the State Senate. He won by only 100,000 votes out of over five million cast.

Although his planned platform isn't yet known, the source said that it would be based around repealing President Obama's health care law and stopping the ever-growing mountain of debt that is drowning America's economy in uncertainty.

Pataki's statements come as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hinted at a possible run himself.

UPDATE, 10:52pm:

Just about an hour before our story broke, we have some apparent waves coming from the Washington Times that match up with a run. Pataki is concerned about the current field's "electability" and shifts towards a move himself:

“I think it’s very important not just that we choose a nominee who has the right vision but choose a nominee who has the ability to win the election,” Mr. Pataki said. “It’s wonderful to make a philosophical statement, but our country is at the point where we need a real change in direction and that’s what it comes down to.”

Referring to his three gubernatorial wins in strongly Democratic New York, he said, “I look back with pride on my ability to get conservatives, Republicans, independents and enlightened Democrats to vote for me.”
...
“I don’t have a deadline, but obviously there isn’t a great deal of additional time,” he said. “My family and I are doing a personal assessment as to the best way to change this country for the better, and we’ll make that decision sometime in the near future.

“I certainly don’t intend to just enjoy the private-sector life and not be involved in some capacity.”

Mr. Pataki said he would be speaking at several venues in Iowa Thursday and Friday next week. Meanwhile, his nonprofit outfit, “No American Debt,” has been airing a television ad in New Hampshire, the other early nomination battleground state.

Emphasis ours.