The Des Moines Register - At State Fair, Pataki Touts Leadership in New York

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By Paige Godden

Former New York Gov. George Pataki told Iowa State Fairgoers they should vote for him because his background is vastly different than anyone else's in the race.

And by that, he meant he's a farmer.

"I have three tractors," the Republican candidate for president told the crowd at the The Des Moines Register Political Soapbox. "In fact, I was out on a tractor last week moving hay. I'm on the only candidate in this entire race who was actually born and raised on a farm."

Growing up on a farm, he said, teaches people there are no shortcuts in life. Pataki said if anyone cuts corners on farms, it'll come back to bite them because there's no getting around doing the job well.

He claimed other candidates in the race will promise this or that but won't follow through.

Pataki promised he'd cut the federal government's workforce by 15 percent if elected, something he did in state government in New York. He also told the crowd he lowered taxes by $143 billion, got more than 1 million people off welfare and added 700,000 private sector jobs while governor.

To do that, Pataki said he had to convince New York's Democratic senators to give his policies a chance.

Pataki said he was also able to get the Democratic majority to adopt stricter law enforcement policies and turned New York from one of the most dangerous states in the nation to the fourth safest.

After speaking for about 10 minutes, Pataki took several questions from the crowd. The first came from a teacher who asked whether education is still the great equalizer among lower income communities.

Pataki respond that charter schools have worked in New York and across the nation and are one way to get lower-income students out of schools that have been failing them. He said if a child is trapped in a government school that fails year after year, families should be able to pick another school. He also said teachers need to be held responsible.

Pataki said another way to improve struggling lower-income communities is to fix the economy by making it easier to open small businesses.

Quote: On being the governor of New York on Sept. 11, 2001: "This is something that is with me every single day. When I was governor of New York on September 11, I felt the horror. I knew the victims. When I was leading New York to its recovery on that day with (New York City mayor) Rudy Giuliani and (former president) George Bush, I felt the flames and could taste the air. I vowed then this country, so long as I have anything to say about it, was never going to bow down to radical Islam again."

Crowd: The crowd filled in the chairs in front of the stage and spilled onto the sidewalk.

Other stops at the fair: Pataki was scheduled to eat a pork chop with the Iowa Pork Producers Association before leaving the fair. He planned several stops before his speech, but arrived later than planned after cancelled flights in New York.

George Pataki addressed a crowd from the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 16, 2015 The Register

Pataki on Trump: "We don't need theater in politics'

After his speech at The Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, former New York Gov. George Pataki hurled insults at rival Republican candidate Donald Trump, who offered kids rides on his helicopter at the Iowa State Fair Saturday.

"It seems like so much of politics is some kind of entertainment," Pataki said. "Who is going to land in a helicopter and whether or not someone is going to be indicted? How can we fit things in a 30-second sound bite?"

He said what the country needs is someone who has the vision and experience of having led successfully.

"We don't need theater in politics," Pataki said. "Right now, politicians seem to win by dividing people, by demonizing the other side. I want to win by bringing people together."

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