[caption id="attachment_66470" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="George Pataki."]
Former New York governor George Pataki is reportedly planning to jump into the already crowded field of candidates seeking the Republican Party presidential nomination for 2012.
Pataki, a three-term governor who is Irish on his mother's side of the family with roots in Louth, is expected to make clear his intentions this weekend in Iowa.
Pataki has been the subject of presidential speculation in the past, but while he has not made any overt moves he has neither completely ruled out a bid.
The Journal News of Westchester County reported Tuesday that Pataki and his allies are hoping his "socially moderate" views could separate him from the current Republican primary field.
Pataki served as governor between 1994 and 2006 and his administrations featured a number of Irish Americans in high profile posts.
In 2003, Pataki scrapped a visit to California to campaign alongside fellow Republican and then gubernatorial hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was told that then taoiseach Bertie Ahern was about to visit New York's state capital Albany.
Speaking to the audience at a subsequent well-attended reception for Ahern, Pataki expressed his support for full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and said he fully backed the taoiseach's call at the time for elections in Northern Ireland as soon as possible.
During his address, Pataki invited Ahern to visit the Great Hunger Memorial in Lower Manhattan and reminded listeners of various aspects of his record on Irish issues, not least the securing of an extension to the lease on Gaelic Park in the Bronx on behalf of the New York GAA.
