After Pataki refused to give McCaughey permission to conduct a study into child abuse, she did one anyway and publicly announced its results. McCaughey was publicly critical of the governor's proposed cuts to Medicaid and gave a pro-choice speech without his advance permission. In March 1996, "The New York Times" reported that McCaughey was locked out of the governor's inner circle because she had violated the "unwritten rules" of the conventional lieutenant governor's role. Rather than following protocol as lieutenant governor by taking a seat with everyone else during Pataki's State of the State address to the legislature in 1996, McCaughey stood for the entire 56 min speech's length, further attracting attention to herself at her governor's expense. In the spring of 1997, Governor Pataki announced that McCaughey would not be his running mate when he ran for re-election in 1998. He later selected New York State Supreme Court Justice Mary Donohue to replace her.