National Audubon Society
of New York State

Elected to serve as Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York on November 3, 1998, Mary Donohue was an integral part of Governor Pataki's reelection team. She traveled the state campaigning on the Governor's record of cutting taxes, reducing crime, cleaning up the environment and creating opportunities for individuals trapped on welfare.

Mary Donohue's experience as a teacher, District Attorney and State Supreme Court Justice has proven invaluable to the Governor as he continues to implement policies that have given all New Yorkers more hope, more freedom and a brighter future entering the new millennium.

In 1996, Lieutenant Governor Donohue was elected to the State Supreme Court for the Third Judicial District by an impressive 20,000 vote margin in a six-way race. Prior to her service as the first female State Supreme Court Justice from Rensselaer County, the Lieutenant Governor was elected as Rensselaer County's first female District Attorney in 1992, and was reelected in 1995 with 70 percent of the vote.

During her tenure as District Attorney, she compiled an impressive crime-fighting record and ran for reelection with a 98 percent felony conviction rate. As District Attorney, Donohue attained wide-ranging respect for her expertise in many criminal justice areas, including domestic violence, child abuse, the death penalty and juvenile justice. She personally tried cases ranging from murder and attempted murder to sexual abuse, all of which resulted in convictions, and she also oversaw nearly 5,000 criminal prosecutions each year.

In 1996, Governor George E. Pataki appointed Donohue chair of the Capital District Women's Advisory Council. This appointment followed her 1994 service to then Governor-elect Pataki's Transition Team for Criminal Justice.

Prior to her service as Judge and District Attorney, the Lieutenant Governor was a teacher and an attorney. A graduate of the College of New Rochelle, Donohue taught elementary and junior high school in Rensselaer and Albany County school districts. During her 10-year teaching career, Lieutenant Governor Donohue earned a Master's of Science in Education, from Russell Sage College.

In 1980, the Lieutenant Governor entered law school at Albany Law School of Union University, where she earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1983. During law school, she served as a law clerk and intern in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albany and worked on the staff of Senator Joseph L. Bruno.

After graduating from law school, Lieutenant Governor Donohue was admitted to the New York State bar and worked as an associate attorney with O'Connell & Aronowitz, P.C. in Albany until 1988. From 1988 to 1992, she ran her own law practice in Troy. From 1990 to1992, the Lieutenant Governor also served as Assistant Rensselaer County Attorney, representing the county in litigation matters and in Family Court, there by gaining invaluable experience in areas including juvenile justice and other issues affecting children.

In January 1999, Governor Pataki appointed Donohue to chair the Governor's Task Force on School Violence, which has traveled throughout the state holding one-on-one meetings with students and holding public hearings to get ideas and suggestions on how to address the school violence issue.

The Lt. Governor was also appointed by the Governor to chair the Quality Communities Interagency Task Force in January 2000. The Task Force will study community growth in New York State and develop measures to assist those communities in implementing effective economic and land development, and preservation and rehabilitation strategies.

The Lieutenant Governor was born and raised in Rensselaer County. She is the mother of two children, Sara, 21, and Justin, 12.

(Link to Lt. Governor's website.)

For more information on Smart Growth in New York State please visit all the pages of our smart growth site (http://ny.audubon.org/smart.html) or contact Alison Heaphy, Director of Land Use Policy, National Audubon Society of New York State, 200 Trillium Lane, Albany, NY 12203, (518) 766-0167 or (518) 869-9731; fax (518) 869-0737.