SPARTANBURG -- New York Gov. George Pataki made a foray Sunday into South Carolina's Republican heartland, a trip that might be a forerunner to a presidential bid when he leaves office next year.

Addressing the Spartanburg County GOP's annual Bronze Elephant event, the nation's longest-serving governor offered no hint of his future intentions, but he provided the 100-plus activists with verbal imagery of a governor who cut taxes, fought crime, improved his state's fiscal standing and battled Democrats at every turn.

Playing off his role as New York's 9-11 governor and the impending redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, Pataki said, "Our policies empower people instead of empowering government."

He is one of several Republican governors -- and prospective contenders in South Carolina's 2008 presidential primary -- to use the weekend's National Governors' Association meeting in Charleston to get acquainted with potential in-state supporters.

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Pataki recognized several transplants from New York in the audience, including Spartanburg Mayor Bill Barnett, an Albany native, and Walter McSherry, who played a key role in Pataki's 1994 nomination.

Asked how a Northeastern Republican would play in the area, Spartanburg GOP chairman Rick Beltram, another Northern transplant, said, "It's a mixed bag here" because of in-migration, "something the media doesn't give us credit for."

Although Pataki didn't mention a presidential run, Robert Cole, his political strategist, said he is looking for individuals to begin setting up a South Carolina campaign.