There has to be some serendipity involved in a career that goes from investigating tapioca recipes to advising the governor of New York State on his most important policy strategies. But it also takes talent, and Robert Bellafiore, B.A.’82, has plenty of both. In early 1996, Governor George Pataki and his staff created a special post for Bellafiore in which he would work on long-term projects involving communications and legislative strategies. The move came in response to Bellafiore’s giving two months’ notice that he was quitting his job as the governor’s press secretary—which he had held since Pataki’s election victory over Mario Cuomo in 1994. In 1996 Bellafiore went to work on what would be the successful passage of the largest workers compensation reform in the state’s history. In 1997 he worked on parole reforms that resulted in Jenna’s Law. Last year, passage of charter schools for New York was high on his agenda, although he stepped away from that for a month to become chief spokesman for U.S. Sen. Alphonse D’Amato’s unsuccessful re-election bid. In December, charter schools in New York State became a reality. How Bellafiore rose so far is slightly startling even to him. “First of all, if I’d gone to any other school instead of Albany after graduating high school in Queens, I’d never be here now,” he said. Also, the former English major had considered becoming either a sportswriter or a lawyer. “I missed the meeting of the pre-law society my freshman year, so that settled it. I had to be a sportswriter.” If that had come easily, he’d probably be something else today too. But after serving as Albany Student Press sports editor as a junior and then working part-time as a senior on the Albany Times Union sports desk, he found no sports job open upon graduation. He did, however, land a job in Albany on the now defunct Knickerbocker News as an editorial clerk. There he handled obituaries, movie schedules and other not-too-glamorous assignments. “I was also in charge of ‘Chef’s Secrets.’ If you wrote in and said, ‘I had the tapioca pudding at the Patroon Room and it was just scrumptious,’ I called the restaurant and printed the recipe.” Still, even though he was not in sports, and not even in very exciting news, Bellafiore was on a newspaper. And that led to a big break one day in the fall of 1984, when he dropped off a résumé at United Press International (UPI). “It happened to be the day its union agreed to take a 25 percent pay cut. I got the job of one of the reporters who had to quit because he couldn’t afford the cut.” By January of 1986, Bellafiore was in UPI’s state Capitol Bureau; seven months later he was bureau chief. As chief political writer, he immediately began covering the first re-election campaigns of both D’Amato and Cuomo. When a job opened up at The Associated Press (AP) in January of 1987, Bellafiore was an easy choice. After 4½ years of meeting AP deadlines, Bellafiore took a public relations post with The Business Council of New York State, the state’s chief business-lobbying organization. In a sense, he was going back to school, learning skills that would graduate him on to his next challenge. George Pataki was elected governor in 1996, largely on a Business Council-supported platform of turning New York’s economy around. Zenia Mucha, Pataki’s director of communications, soon approached Bellafiore about the press secretary job. “It was a logical choice for me,” he said. “From studying economic issues at The Business Council, from being a New Yorker born and bred, I knew that New York had not been on an even playing field with its competition. Taxes here were too high. People didn’t get to keep enough of their money. Unnecessary regulatory burdens were put on businesses. Government just seemed to have lost its common sense.” The Pataki team appointed Bellafiore its chief spokesman, sole speechwriter and handler of legislative and media reaction. “Each morning at 7:30 I’d brace for the incoming,” he said. “I’d finally get to my ‘To-Do’ list at seven that night.” For two years, he found the sacrifice worth it. “George Pataki has the best brain of anyone I’ve ever met. He can process tons of information and get to the nub of an issue faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s also a very nice guy.” But, by the end of 1995, when his second son was born, Bellafiore thought it time to reassess. “I could stay in the job with the best unelected title in New York State government—press secretary—or I could define my life by other terms, like husband and father.” He opted to quit and go back to The Business Council. But shortly after Bellafiore wrote the budget presentation and State-of-the-State address for the governor in early 1996, the new offer arrived. “It’s been great,” said Bellafiore, now 38. “I’ve gone back to focusing on a more long-term, pro-active agenda. “And I’m still involved in many of the same areas I’ve always been involved in. The only role I don’t fill is ‘lawyer’— probably because I missed that meeting of the pre-law society.”
 Back to Cover
page Back to Table
of ContentsJohn Delano / Dean Falk / Caro-Beth Stewart / Thomas Constantine / Michael Forbes / John McHugh / Robert Bellafiore / Washington Semester Program / James Jaccard / Darcie and Joe Trapasso / News & Notes / Faculty Books / Kresge Grant |
