Catherwood LibraryILR School

The official endorsements by many of New York State?s most powerful unions for Republican incumbent George Pataki in the upcoming gubernatorial elections (see WIT?s for June 27 and May 22, 2002) is coming under fire from some rank-and-file members. Although Pataki has done much in the past year to win this amazing crossing of political lines by usually staunch Democratic supporters (see WIT for Feb. 19, 2002), he has a long history of pro-business sentiment that has not been wholly absent even in recent political wrangling (see WIT for June 19, 2002). This controversy has led to a resolution by members of New York?s Public Employee Federation, calling for the revocation of their union?s endorsement of Pataki, but will likely be most hotly debated when the delegate assembly of New York City?s 140,000-member United Federation of Teachers votes next week on which candidate, if any, to support.