ALBANY - He was once untouchable. “Eliot Ness” declared the tabloids.
Time magazine called Eliot Spitzer “Crusader of the Year,” while People called him one of the sexiest politicians alive. Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert called him “the golden boy” and the world's most powerful capitalists called him right back.
Before he was elected governor, Democrats, Republicans, conservatives and liberals loved the two-term attorney general: This new, tough-on-crime, fiscally conservative Democrat who for eight years policed the world's financial markets to protect the little guy. His father, millionaire real estate developer Bernard Spitzer, boldly told a magazine his son would be the first Jewish president. No one laughed. As far back as 2005, Fortune said he could be a presidential contender, and a gaggle of reporters and photographers tracked him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
But since he swept to the governor's mansion less than a year ago with a record vote, he's been hit with scandal and derided as a rich brat who doesn't play well with others. “Eliot's Mess,” mocked the tabloids.
The low point came two weeks ago when, battered in the polls and amid concerns that he was threatening to unhinge Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, he grudgingly surrendered on his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. He is now the guy who set the standard for rapid political collapse.
The white-hot national attention - from the Clintons, the networks and The Washington Post - has gone cold as the party focuses on its more immediate stars, those with less baggage. In New York, pollsters are starting to pit Spitzer against Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for a possible primary in 2010.
“It is very, very unusual for someone to dive this far, that quickly,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on President Clinton's successful re-election campaign in 1996 and handled Spitzer's ads in his first two campaigns.
Edward Koch, the former New York City mayor who has seen political rise and fall firsthand, said Spitzer lost an enormous amount of political capital.
“He has not yet redeemed himself, but is on the path, hopefully,” Koch said. “I say that because of his recognition that what he was proposing - giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens - was unacceptable to something like 75 percent of the public. And his apology was far from fulsome.”
“What he has to do is show a little humility,” said Koch, a quintessential, brash New Yorker himself. “But I believe he ultimately will prevail and once again have the support of the New York citizenry.”
On Wall Street, where corporate titans vilified Spitzer as an arrogant bully years before politicians and polls did, Spitzer's problems are better sport than an early squash game. But they say gloating, at least publicly, is bad form.
“He's done,” said Roger Stone, a Washington political consultant who worked on President Nixon's re-election and worked for presidents Bush and Reagan. “I don't think he'll be re-nominated.”
Stone worked for the New York Senate's Republican majority to capitalize on and compound Spitzer's rookie mistakes, but eventually resigned after he was accused of making a threatening phone call to Spitzer's father, a call he denies making.
It's not the first freshman flop by a political firebrand turned governor.
In 1980, Bill Clinton was just the second Arkansas governor in the century to fail to win a second term after unpopular measures angered lumber companies and taxpayers. (He later won another term.) In football-crazy Texas, Democratic Gov. Mark White served a single term in the 1980s after instituting a “no-pass/no-play provision” that barred failing students from sports.
At Spitzer's inauguration, he vowed to usher in a new era of vitality, reform, openness and government working for the people. He spoke of working with all, and all seemed to know that if that didn't work, he had the smarts, the political support and the popularity to smash the status quo.
And it worked, for a while. He led and scared lawmakers to unprecedented reforms of the budget process, ethics, and a bloated worker's compensation system that for decades cost employers too much while paying injured workers too little.
Then the status quo fought back.
Spitzer was beset by scandal involving two top aides who were tracking the travels of the governor's chief political nemesis, the Republican leader of the state Senate. Pointed arguments and angry accusations of skullduggery whirled around the walls of the Capitol.
As one longtime Republican operative put it, “He's shown he's 'vincible.”' In the process, he's made his opposition stronger.
A week ago, a Siena College poll found 64 percent of New Yorkers had a negative rating of his job performance. In January, 75 percent of New Yorkers viewed him favorably. A year after he was elected with a historic 69 percent of the vote, New Yorkers by a 2:1 margin said they wouldn't re-elect him in 2010.
What happened?
“He just doesn't seem to realize he isn't attorney general,” said political science Professor Jeffrey M. Stonecash of the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. “There's a big difference between book smarts and political smarts.”
Stonecash said Spitzer's mistakes date to his campaign, when he insulted the Legislature as the nation's most dysfunctional while he himself didn't understand Albany's politics.
“I thought he made a very foolish statement in the campaign, that `Day One, everything changes,”' Stonecash said.
Political science Professor Christopher W. Larimer of the University of Northern Iowa, a researcher of leadership traits and flaws, said politicians walk a fine line.
“If you become a powerful leader, you can then step over the line and become power hungry,” he said. “I think generally once they cross it, it's pretty hard to come back.”
But Spitzer has come back once before.
In 1994, Spitzer finished last in a four-way primary for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. While others wrote his political obituary, Spitzer jumped in the family minivan and put on 70,000 miles building support and contacts among New Yorkers he admitted he misunderstood. It propelled him to unparalleled electoral popularity.
He's been doing the same this fall, trading the van for a state airplane, pushing his agenda and declaring great success. Last week he blocked a fare increase for New York city subways and buses, the kind of bread-and-butter issue political strategist Sheinkopf said Spitzer needs to concentrate on now.
“Three years is an eternity in politics,” Sheinkopf said.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-11-24-07 1256EST
Before he was elected governor, Democrats, Republicans, conservatives and liberals loved the two-term attorney general: This new, tough-on-crime, fiscally conservative Democrat who for eight years policed the world's financial markets to protect the little guy. His father, millionaire real estate developer Bernard Spitzer, boldly told a magazine his son would be the first Jewish president. No one laughed. As far back as 2005, Fortune said he could be a presidential contender, and a gaggle of reporters and photographers tracked him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
But since he swept to the governor's mansion less than a year ago with a record vote, he's been hit with scandal and derided as a rich brat who doesn't play well with others. “Eliot's Mess,” mocked the tabloids.
The low point came two weeks ago when, battered in the polls and amid concerns that he was threatening to unhinge Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, he grudgingly surrendered on his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. He is now the guy who set the standard for rapid political collapse.
The white-hot national attention - from the Clintons, the networks and The Washington Post - has gone cold as the party focuses on its more immediate stars, those with less baggage. In New York, pollsters are starting to pit Spitzer against Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for a possible primary in 2010.
“It is very, very unusual for someone to dive this far, that quickly,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who worked on President Clinton's successful re-election campaign in 1996 and handled Spitzer's ads in his first two campaigns.
Edward Koch, the former New York City mayor who has seen political rise and fall firsthand, said Spitzer lost an enormous amount of political capital.
“He has not yet redeemed himself, but is on the path, hopefully,” Koch said. “I say that because of his recognition that what he was proposing - giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens - was unacceptable to something like 75 percent of the public. And his apology was far from fulsome.”
“What he has to do is show a little humility,” said Koch, a quintessential, brash New Yorker himself. “But I believe he ultimately will prevail and once again have the support of the New York citizenry.”
On Wall Street, where corporate titans vilified Spitzer as an arrogant bully years before politicians and polls did, Spitzer's problems are better sport than an early squash game. But they say gloating, at least publicly, is bad form.
“He's done,” said Roger Stone, a Washington political consultant who worked on President Nixon's re-election and worked for presidents Bush and Reagan. “I don't think he'll be re-nominated.”
Stone worked for the New York Senate's Republican majority to capitalize on and compound Spitzer's rookie mistakes, but eventually resigned after he was accused of making a threatening phone call to Spitzer's father, a call he denies making.
It's not the first freshman flop by a political firebrand turned governor.
In 1980, Bill Clinton was just the second Arkansas governor in the century to fail to win a second term after unpopular measures angered lumber companies and taxpayers. (He later won another term.) In football-crazy Texas, Democratic Gov. Mark White served a single term in the 1980s after instituting a “no-pass/no-play provision” that barred failing students from sports.
At Spitzer's inauguration, he vowed to usher in a new era of vitality, reform, openness and government working for the people. He spoke of working with all, and all seemed to know that if that didn't work, he had the smarts, the political support and the popularity to smash the status quo.
And it worked, for a while. He led and scared lawmakers to unprecedented reforms of the budget process, ethics, and a bloated worker's compensation system that for decades cost employers too much while paying injured workers too little.
Then the status quo fought back.
Spitzer was beset by scandal involving two top aides who were tracking the travels of the governor's chief political nemesis, the Republican leader of the state Senate. Pointed arguments and angry accusations of skullduggery whirled around the walls of the Capitol.
As one longtime Republican operative put it, “He's shown he's 'vincible.”' In the process, he's made his opposition stronger.
A week ago, a Siena College poll found 64 percent of New Yorkers had a negative rating of his job performance. In January, 75 percent of New Yorkers viewed him favorably. A year after he was elected with a historic 69 percent of the vote, New Yorkers by a 2:1 margin said they wouldn't re-elect him in 2010.
What happened?
“He just doesn't seem to realize he isn't attorney general,” said political science Professor Jeffrey M. Stonecash of the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. “There's a big difference between book smarts and political smarts.”
Stonecash said Spitzer's mistakes date to his campaign, when he insulted the Legislature as the nation's most dysfunctional while he himself didn't understand Albany's politics.
“I thought he made a very foolish statement in the campaign, that `Day One, everything changes,”' Stonecash said.
Political science Professor Christopher W. Larimer of the University of Northern Iowa, a researcher of leadership traits and flaws, said politicians walk a fine line.
“If you become a powerful leader, you can then step over the line and become power hungry,” he said. “I think generally once they cross it, it's pretty hard to come back.”
But Spitzer has come back once before.
In 1994, Spitzer finished last in a four-way primary for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. While others wrote his political obituary, Spitzer jumped in the family minivan and put on 70,000 miles building support and contacts among New Yorkers he admitted he misunderstood. It propelled him to unparalleled electoral popularity.
He's been doing the same this fall, trading the van for a state airplane, pushing his agenda and declaring great success. Last week he blocked a fare increase for New York city subways and buses, the kind of bread-and-butter issue political strategist Sheinkopf said Spitzer needs to concentrate on now.
“Three years is an eternity in politics,” Sheinkopf said.
---
Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-11-24-07 1256EST
The Citizens' Say
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Ray Alger wrote on Dec 1, 2007 3:55 PM: