He is a former Democrat, born and raised on Staten Island, the first Republican elected as district attorney there in a half century and then re-elected in 2007 with 67 percent of the vote.

He opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save a mother’s life, and he favors civil unions, not marriage, for same-sex couples. Nonetheless, he insists he would protect abortion rights (“the law is never going to change”) and would defend same-sex marriage (“once we have a marriage equality bill”).

He was a friend of Bernard B. Kerik, the former police commissioner who pleaded guilty to charges including tax fraud, and he made his political bones working in the seclusive borough president’s office. But he was opposed by his former boss when he ran for re-election as district attorney because he had recruited an independent prosecutor to investigate the borough president’s grandson. And he says his top priority as the state’s chief prosecutor would be to snuff out the torrent of corruption in Albany.

This, in a nutshell, is Daniel M. Donovan Jr., 53, the Republican nominee for New York State attorney general.

“He was an excellent assistant D.A.,” said Robert M. Morgenthau, the former Manhattan district attorney for whom Mr. Donovan worked before being recruited by Borough President Guy V. Molinari of Staten Island. “He was fair and on Staten Island; I think he did well and was well respected.”

Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, praises Mr. Donovan for his “progressive” vision of law enforcement, his managerial skills and, as president of a statewide prosecutors’ group, for “engaging the Legislature in a way that never happened before.” (Both Mr. Morgenthau and Mr. Hynes are Democrats.)

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(Read More: NY Times)