Betsy McCaughey Ross

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Betsy McCaughey Ross, nee Elizabeth Peterkin (b. October 20, 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) attended Westport CT public schools. She graduated with distinction from Vassar College in 1970, winning Woodrow Wilson and Herbet H. Lehman Fellowships. She went on to take her Master's at Columbia University in 1972, and her Ph.D. there also in 1976. Her dissertation, a modern biography of New York Loyalist William Johnson, was published by Columbia University Press in 1980.

Her most prominent public role until now was her service as the lieutenant-governor of the State of New York from 1995 to 1999, during the first term of Republican Governor George Pataki. Prior to entering politics, she was an assistant professor at Columbia University, a Chase Manhattan Loan Officer and then a staff member at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank. Since 1999 she has been an adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute. She also serves as chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, which she founded.

In 1994, McCaughey (as she was then known) vigorously criticized the health care reform package proposed by Bill Clinton in a widely read article in The New Republic. The piece, "No Exit," won the National Magazine Award for excellence in the public interest. Supporters of the Clinton plan (including some of the editors of the New Republic) were vociferous in their criticism of McCaughey's criticism.

McCaughey was a political novice at the time of her election as lieutenant governor. She and Pataki did not know each other when he asked selected her as his running-mate. She was selected on the recommendation of former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato who was impressed by her writings on health care reform. McCaughey said she accepted the nomination believing she could work with Pataki on similar policy issues.

She was initially tasked by Pataki to work on Medicaid reform and education policy. {Profile in NYT, Feb. 1996.} She had a famous clash with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the Capitol lobby over the budget. After that, the relationship between Ross and Pataki went down hill with a series of bizarre incidents and outright public disagreements between them. In addition, McCaughey, for unknown reasons, stood throughout Pataki's 1996 State of the State Address. Her public criticism of her own administration over various issues caught Republican Party insiders by surprise. She was then frozen out of effective participation in policy matters for the remainder of Pataki's first term.

McCaughey and her first husband having divorced, she married millionaire businessman Wilbur Ross, Jr. in 1997. Her three daughters from her first marriage have all gaduated college, the last in 2006.

In the spring of 1997, Pataki announced that McCaughey-Ross would not be his running mate in 1998. This was said to be the first time the two had talked in several months. Pataki later selected State Supreme Court Justice Mary Donohue to replace McCaughey.

In 1997, McCaughey-Ross officially became a Democrat. She later announced her candidacy for the 1998 Democratic nomination for Governor. McCaughey-Ross was the early frontrunner for her new party, in part because of her statewide name recognition and financial support from her millionaire husband. However, her campaign was plagued by missteps and staff turnover and in August 1998, her husband withdrew his money from her campaign. In the early part of the campaign, State Comptroller Carl McCall announced that he would not support McCaughey-Ross if she became the Democratic nominee. Ross' highest profile supporter was Assemblyman Sam Hoyt of Buffalo.

After losing the Democratic Party primary for governor, McCaughey-Ross accepted the nomination of the Liberal Party for that office. However, her campaign attracted little support and she garned only 1.65% of the vote.

After the general election, papers were filed for divorce between McCaughey-Ross and Ross. During the court proceedings in 2000, she alleged that she was coerced into marriage based on a promise that her then husband would fund her campaign. (Wilbur Ross married again in 2004 to Hilary Geary.)

Since leaving office in 1999, McCaughey (as she is now known again) has been an adjunct fellow in the Washington, DC headquarters of Hudson Institute, where her areas of expertise include American politics, constitutional law and, above all, health care policy.

Health care reform, both globally and for each patient, has become McCaughey's life-work. In 2005, she founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and serves as its chairman. The organization is, according to its website, "a non-profit organization devoted solely to providing safer, cleaner, hospital care."[1] Innovation in technologies is, she believes, a key element in lowering infectious disease transmission within hospital environments.

1 1998 NYS Governor's Race Results
2 Statewide Tickets Lieutenant Governor McCaughey Ross Ran On
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 1998 NYS Governor's Race Results

George Pataki (R-C) (inc.), 54%
Peter Vallone (D-WF), 33%
Tom Golisano (I), 8%
Betsy McCaughey Ross (L), 1.4%

[edit] Statewide Tickets Lieutenant Governor McCaughey Ross Ran On

1994 Republican and Conservative Tickets

Governor: George Pataki
Lieutenant Governor: Betsy McCaughey
Comptroller: Herbert London
Attorney General: Dennis Vacco
U.S. Senate: Bernadette Castro

1998 Liberal Party Ticket

Governor: Betsy McCaughey Ross
Lieutenant Governor: Jonathan Reiter
Comptroller: Carl McCall
Attorney General: Eliot Spitzer
U.S. Senate: Charles Schumer

[edit] References

James Fallows, "A Triumph of Misinformation," The Atlantic Monthly, January, 1995.
James Fallows, "Getting in the Way: Misinformation" in Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, New York, Pantheon Books, 1996, pp. 226-233.
Mickey Kaus, "No Exegesis," The New Republic, May 8 , [1995]].
Michael Kinsley, "Second Opinion," The New Republic, February 14, 2004.
Theodore R. Marmor and Jerry L. Mashaw, "Cassandra's Law," The New Republic, February 14, 2004.
Elizabeth McCaughey, "No Exit," The New Republic, February 7, 1994.
Elizabeth McCaughey, "She's Baack!", The New Republic, [[February 28], 1994.
Adam Nagourney, "McCaughey Ross Plans to Switch to Democrats," The New York Times, September 30, 1997.[2]

[edit] External links

Biographical resume of McCaughey at Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths website.
Profile of McCaughey at Hudson Institute website.

Preceded by Stan Lundine	Lieutenant Governor of New York 1995 – 1999	Succeeded by Mary Donohue
Preceded by Mario Cuomo	Liberal Party Nominee for Governor of New York 1998	Succeeded by Andrew Cuomo