Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee dipped his toe into the NY 2010 election season and endorsed Myers Mermel, a Manhattan resident, for Lieutenant Governor. Huckabee says on a video, "He's governor ready. Now, let me explain what that means. I was a lieutenant governor and became governor because the governor had to, somehow, get out of office. You know what? That's happened a lot, including in New York. The lieutenant governor needs to be somebody who is ready to take the job." In a 2008 Observer feature, Mermel was described as running "a commercial real estate ownership and advisory business. Of late, he's also quite busy with the thankless task of running Huckabee’s New York bid."