Mary O'Connor Donohue (born March 22, 1947) is an American retired educator, attorney, politician and Judge of the New York Court of Claims and a former two-term Lieutenant Governor of New York. Donohue was first elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998, and was re-elected in 2002. Teaching and legal career Donohue is a former teacher and lawyer who was once an aide to State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. She graduated from The College of New Rochelle and received a master's degree in Education from Russell Sage College. In 1983, she received a Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law School. In addition to working for Bruno, Donohue served as an Assistant County Attorney in Rensselaer County. During her time in the county attorney's office, she worked on Family Court and juvenile justice issues. District attorney and justice of the Supreme Court Donohue served as the district attorney of Rensselaer County for several years in the 1990s. During her two terms as district attorney, she prosecuted over 5,000 cases a year. She handled several cases herself. In 1996, she was elected as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court. Serving as a state judge, Donohue handled both civil and criminal cases. She resigned from her judgeship in 1998, when Pataki picked her as a running mate. Lieutenant Governor Donohue was selected as the running mate to Gov. George Pataki in his 1998 re-election bid. After she and Gov. Pataki won their 1998 election, Donohue was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of New York on January 1, 1999, replacing Betsy McCaughey Ross. School violence When Donohue became Lieutenant Governor, Gov. Pataki appointed her to head a special task force on school violence issues. Gov. Pataki said that he designated Donohue to head the task force because of her background as a teacher and district attorney. According to her state website, Donohue spent a year traveling the state meeting with teachers, parents, students, and law enforcement to discuss school violence issues. As a part of her work, Donohue formulated a series of recommendations, signed into law by Pataki in 2000. Since 1999, Donohue started to spend time traveling the state promoting school violence prevention and to implement the recommendations of her task force. In 2005, Donohue led a state program, comprising several agencies, to determine best practices in the area of school violence prevention. Part of the recommendations made by Donohue's task