Pataki may have been a moderate, but he was very much on the law and order side of things, which he used very effectively in his campaign. Trump is very much a law and order candidate. He might lose because of other things, but running on law and order in the 90s was a winning ticket because people were so sick of crime.
I'd say that was a minor concern. The major one was that people didn't like Bill Clinton, nor did they like his "radical" wife at the time, plus the economy was still in a recession. The badly done proto-ACA didn't help things either.
On another note, Trump can also run to the left of Cuomo on abortion. Cuomo's view was that, while he was personally pro-life, he didn't believe he had the right to impose those morals on others, and as such was pro-choice in practice. Trump can be a more pro-choice candidate, and that's one issue that can help bring moderates into his campaign, though he has to make sure he doesn't piss off the right too much.