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)