SOME senior Pataki administration of ficials are “preoc cupied with their exit strategies” because they believe the governor won’t seek re-election, says an administration source.
“They know that the governor appears to be most interested these days in fund-raising and in traveling, and it’s trickled down,” said the source. “They’re interested in determining how they get out with a good job and survive the end.”
Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn denied the contention, calling it “nothing more than chatter and speculation from people who have no idea what they’re talking about.”
*
Forget an on-time, April 1 state budget, key legislative insiders now agree. Despite repeated pledges by legislative leaders that they pass the first on-time budget in 19 years, insiders said ongoing fighting over education aid, Medicaid reform and new taxes will produce the 20th consecutive late budget – another all-time state record.
*
Short takes:
* Some GOP insiders are predicting that Mayor Bloomberg will revert to earlier form and switch back to the Democratic Party after this summer’s Republican National Convention. While Bloomberg denies any plans to abandon the GOP, the insiders expect a switch because the mayor could easily lose a Republican primary next year and, most importantly, being a member of President Bush’s party isn’t exactly a major plus in New York City.
* Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, about as politically correct a liberal Democrat as anyone can find, is being accused of a form of racism by a Democratic assemblyman from The Bronx.
“You have crossed a very dangerous line in introducing the ethnicity of opposing lawmakers in this policy debate,” charged Assemblyman Peter Rivera, claiming Gottfried wrongly singled out “11 Hispanic members” for attack in a fight over Medicaid reform. “I was totally surprised by it and I totally disagree with it,” Gottfried told The Post in response.