Editing H. Carl McCall (section)

===2002 campaign for Governor of New York===
In 2002, McCall announced his campaign against [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] incumbent Governor [[George Pataki]].<ref name="Schneider">{{cite news| first=Bill| last=Schneider| url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/06/ip.pol.umbrella/index.html|title=Let a political connection be your umbrella?|work=Inside Politics|publisher=CNN|date=September 6, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050319094326/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/06/ip.pol.umbrella/index.html|archive-date=March 19, 2005}}</ref> McCall was the favorite of the Democratic establishment, but he faced a tough challenge from [[Andrew Cuomo]] which almost split the party.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/03/elec02.ny.g.cuomo/index.html|title=Cuomo quits New York governor's race|first=John |last=Mercurio |website=CNN|date=September 3, 2002}}</ref> Cuomo proved to be a better fundraiser, and McCall's own campaign war chest was heavily depleted in the primary battle. Although McCall himself did not make any negative attacks, his close supporter, US Congressman [[Charles B. Rangel]], stated that the McCall camp would not necessarily endorse Cuomo in the general election should the latter win. This backfired as some Italian-Americans interpreted that as racism, and many of Cuomo's supporters refused to unite behind McCall after McCall won the nomination. McCall was endorsed by Senator [[Chuck Schumer]]. While Senator [[Hillary Clinton]] did not officially take sides during the primary, she loaned a staffer and a fundraiser to McCall's campaign and she marched by McCall's side at the West Indian American Day parade in New York City, as Clinton wanted to retain strong African-American support in case she made a presidential run in the future. Cuomo withdrew from the primary race after McCall moved to a double-digit lead in polls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-09-03-cuomo_x.htm|title=Andrew Cuomo drops out of New York governor's race|website=usatoday30.usatoday.com|date=September 3, 2002}}</ref>

====Letterhead controversy====
In October 2002, McCall released 61 letters he had written on state letterhead to heads of companies in which the state pension fund owned large blocks of stock, asking them to review enclosed resumes of his relatives and other job-seekers.

Some of the letters referred to the size of the state's ownership interest in the corporation targeted, which critics claimed amounted to a veiled threat to punish companies that didn't hire his relatives. A Quinnipiac poll released October 16 showed that two-thirds of likely voters were aware of the letters and of those more than a fifth were less likely to vote for McCall as a result.

McCall defended the letters. Although he did issue a statement regretting the "appearance" and "impression" of the letters he wrote on government stationery, he maintained that he "never sought to leverage my public position nor mix my government role with my personal and professional relationship" in the letters.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E0DC153AF930A25753C1A9649C8B63|title=COPING; Small Favors, Large Stories, Tough Questions|journal=The New York Times|first=Anemona|last=Hartocollis|date=2002-10-13}}</ref> McCall's daughter, Marci, was hired by Verizon, which received such a letter, but was subsequently fired for using her company credit card to pay for substantial personal expenditures. Charges of larceny against her were dropped after some reimbursement to Verizon, and she was then hired as a marketer by McCall's running mate, Dennis Mehiel.

====Results====
McCall was defeated by Pataki in November 2002. McCall received 33% of the vote, a low percentage for a Democratic nominee for statewide office in a state where the Democratic Party is by far the dominant party based on voter registrations. Some observers felt that this seemingly poor showing was in part due to the revelation of the above-referenced letters; others insinuated that McCall's showing was related to racism, especially in upstate New York. However, others point out that Pataki was able to make crucial inroads into traditional areas of Democratic support, such as unions and even African-American congregations. The three-way vote-split efforts of [[Tom Golisano]], who primarily ran against Pataki on [[Independence Party of New York|his own third-party line]], also diverted much of the anti-Pataki vote away from McCall.

Other political commentators attribute McCall's defeat to the growing popularity of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|terrorist attacks]] of September 11, 2001, along with Pataki's successful administration of the state.