With his popularity sagging, criticism mounting over his recent handling of the Lower Manhattan redevelopment, and even the Bush administration blaming him and other governors this week for allowing sexual predators to receive sexual enhancement drugs through Medicaid, Governor Pataki has seemed a lonely political figure.

Adding to that impression are concerns that even Mr. Pataki’s usual allies have begun to raise about his judgment in refusing to announce his political plans until after the current legislative session ends next month. Mr. Pataki’s reluctance on that front has prompted the chairman of the state Conservative Party, Michael Long, to publicly ask Mr. Pataki to make a decision “sooner rather than later.”

Despite an apparent lengthening of the shadows around Mr. Pataki, however, the chairman of the state Republican Party, Stephen Minarik, has lately decided to rush into the breach as a sort of lone cheerleader, not counting the governor’s immediate staff. In naming Mr. Minarik chairman of the state GOP, Mr. Pataki hoped to pick up a proven organizer and moneymaker. He also gained a loyal wingman for when the political winds blow coldest.

Mr. Minarik made his enthusiastic support for the governor clear in a recent interview with The New York Sun at party headquarters. The 45-year-old Republican chairman rankled some administration officials in December by telling the New York Times he would consider a former Independence Party opponent of Mr. Pataki’s, Thomas Golisano, as a Republican candidate for governor in 2006 if Mr. Pataki decided not to seek a fourth term.

Five months later, Mr. Minarik’s support for Mr. Pataki seems unequivocal, even as the governor’s public support, as measured in the polls, continues to dwindle.

Would Mr. Minarik, unlike 61% of the registered voters interviewed for a Siena Research Institute poll in early May, like to see Mr. Pataki run again?

“Of course,” Mr. Minarik said without hesitation. “Absolutely. I would love him to. I think he’s a great candidate. He’s done a great job as our governor, and so of course I’d want to run him for re-election, without a question.”

Does he think, contrary to another large majority of respondents in the same poll, that Mr. Pataki would beat the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, in a head-to-head race for governor next year?

“Absolutely, absolutely,” Mr. Minarik said. “I think the governor has a strong record, and I think the governor hits at some of Spitzer’s base. No one can argue he’s not an environmentalist. And look at the crime rate, which has been constantly reduced under the governor. He’s been a taxcutter. Who knows where Eliot Spitzer stands on the issues?”

Is the governor waiting too long to make a decision on the race? Mr. Minarik is again a booster.

“He has earned the opportunity of making this decision on the time frame he wants to,” the party chairman said. “He deserves the time to make a very critical personal decision as the leader of this party for 11 years and the leader of our state government; he deserves this opportunity to make this decision and we’re going to give it to him.”

Mr. Pataki has not always been as laudatory of Mr. Minarik. The governor publicly criticized him in February after the party chairman connected national Democrats with an activist attorney convicted of aiding terrorists, Lynne Stewart. Mr. Pataki told reporters at the time that the Minarik comments were not “within the realm of appropriate political discourse.”

Yet the public scolding appears to have done little damage to Mr. Minarik’s relationship with a man he refers to, first, as “a friend.” Indeed, their ties seem to have grown stronger. Mr. Minarik said he communicates with the governor almost daily by telephone or e-mail.

Based on his frequent communications with the governor, does Mr. Minarik think Mr. Pataki will indeed seek another four-year term?

“Every day it seems to be different,” Mr. Minarik said. “I’m talking to the governor on a regular basis, and some days he wants to run for re-election. He’s very energized and focused on issues that would be involved in his election if he were to run. Then there are other days when it can be a tough job getting beat up by Shelly Silver and the Democrats, and he finds that frustrating. Those are the days I think he is not interested in running.”