Mary Donohue

Mary O'Connor Donohue (born March 22, 1947) is an American retired educator, attorney, politician and Judge of the New York Court of Claims, who served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 1999 to 2006.

In 1983, she received a Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School.

In addition to working for Bruno, Donohue served as an Assistant County Attorney in Rensselaer County.

During her time in the county attorney's office, she worked on Family Court and juvenile justice issues.

Donohue served as the district attorney of Rensselaer County for several years in the 1990s.

During her two terms as district attorney, she prosecuted over 5,000 cases a year.

She handled several cases herself.

In 1996, she was elected as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court.

Serving as a state judge, Donohue handled both civil and criminal cases.

In 1997, Pataki announced that he was dropping Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross from his 1998 reelection ticket.

Pataki and McCaughey Ross had feuded for much of his term.

Donohue was first elected lieutenant governor in 1998, and was re-elected in 2002.

Donohue is a former teacher and lawyer who was once an aide to State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

She graduated from the College of New Rochelle and received a master's degree in Education from Russell Sage College.

She resigned from her judgeship in 1998, when Pataki picked her as a running mate.

Donohue was selected as the running mate to Gov. George Pataki in his 1998 re-election bid.

McCaughey Ross would later become a Democrat and run unsuccessfully for governor in 1998.

Following Pataki's announcement regarding McCaughey Ross, Donohue was reported as a possible replacement running mate.

In addition, State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro, State Senator Mary Lou Rath and Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples were reported as possible running mates.

In the spring of 1998, Pataki announced his selection of Donohue.

After she and Gov. Pataki won their 1998 election, Donohue was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of New York on January 1, 1999, replacing Betsy McCaughey Ross.

When Donohue became lieutenant governor, Gov. Pataki appointed her to head a special task force on school violence issues.

Gov. Pataki said that he designated Donohue to head the task force because of her background as a teacher and district attorney.

According to her state website, Donohue spent a year traveling the state meeting with teachers, parents, students, and law enforcement to discuss school violence issues.

Since 1999, Donohue started to spend time traveling the state promoting school violence prevention and to implement the recommendations of her task force.

As a part of her work, Donohue formulated a series of recommendations, signed into law by Pataki in 2000.

In 2000, Pataki appointed Donohue to chair a task force on quality communities in New York.

Donohue's task force met around the state to discuss land use policies, economic development, and growth issues.

The panel issued 41 recommendations on preserving community character statewide.

After the conclusion of the task force, Donohue served as Chairwoman of the Quality Communities Working Group, which oversaw implementation of the task force's recommendations and the awarding of quality communities grants to towns statewide.

According to the website for the Quality Communities Clearinghouse, Donohue's panel made recommendations in the areas of neighborhood preservation, open space conservation, farmland preservation, economic development, land use planning, transportation, and technology.

Donohue has traveled the state hosting roundtable discussion on quality communities issues since 2000.

In that role, she worked with Secretaries of State Alexander Treadwell, Randy Daniels, and Christopher Jacobs on local government issues.

In 2001, Donohue chaired a task force on small business issues in the state.

In that role, she met with small business owners and developed policy recommendations for governor on these issues.

During her second term, Donohue frequently traveled the state promoting homeland security issues, drunk driving prevention, and criminal justice.

In 2005, Donohue led a state program, comprising several agencies, to determine best practices in the area of school violence prevention.

Part of the recommendations made by Donohue's task force included giving teacher authority to have disruptive students removed from classrooms, creating character education curricula in school districts, and making violence against a teacher in a classroom a felony.

In 2005, Donohue was named by Pataki as the Chairwoman of the New York State Delegation to the White House Conference on Aging.

Before the conference, Donohue held a series of community meetings around the state on aging issues.