By Jordan Raul
Thursday, April 12, 2001
High-Ranking Nominee;
Pataki taps urban revitalizer to be secretary of state
Albany-Gov. George Pataki is expected to nominate Randy Daniels, a SUNY
trustee who helped design Pataki's efforts to revitalize Harlem and
other urban areas around the state, as his new secretary of state, an
administration source said.
Pataki is scheduled to announce his nominee for the position today in
Manhattan. Pataki aides and Daniels declined to comment last night.
If confirmed as expected by the State Senate, Daniels would be one of
the highest-ranking African-Americans in Pataki's administration.
Pataki, more than many Republicans, has tried to win support of
African-Americans, a traditionally Democratic constituency. Pataki is
likely to seek a third term next year.
"I think Randy did a terrific job generating commitments to inner city
projects," said Kathryn Wylde, president of New York City Partnership
and Chamber of Commerce. She said she did not know about the
appointment, but said: "In terms of the upstate-downstate balance in the
administration, we would give a cheer for having Randy in that position.
We know he can articulate a New York City perspective."
Although obscure to many New Yorkers, the state department is the
oldest of its kind in the country and some of its previous leaders have
risen to become some of the state's most influential politicians.
Before Mario Cuomo was governor, he held the post under Gov. Hugh
Carey. Pataki's first secretary of state, Alexander Treadwell, had the
unofficial portfolio of being a close political adviser to Pataki and
was elevated last month to become chairman of the state Republican
Party.
The department's official duties are more banal. It is responsible for
much of the record-keeping of state government. These include chartering
state businesses; licensing barbers, private investigators, real estate
appraisers and others; and supervising local governments.
Daniels, 49, of Harlem, is a senior vice president of Canyon Capital
Realty Advisors, a real estate lender. Between 1995 and 1999, he was a
deputy commissioner at the Empire State Development Corp., the economic
development arm of state government.
Some of Daniels' past jobs include being CBS correspondent in Africa;
spokesman for former New York City Council President Andrew Stein; chief
media adviser to former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, and spokesman for
the prime minister of the Bahamas. Pataki appointed him vice chairman of
the SUNY trustees in October; he has been a trustee since 1998.
