Spitzer Quits.....Did he cut a deal to avoid jail???
Spitzer Quits as New York Governor; Paterson Succeeds (Update1)
By Henry Goldman and Karen Freifeld
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York, brought down by allegations that he patronized a ring of high-priced prostitutes.
Spitzer, who apologized to all New Yorkers, said his resignation is effective March 17. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, 53, will become the state's 55th governor, serving out the rest of Spitzer's term, which expires Dec. 31, 2010. Paterson, a Democrat like Spitzer, will be the state's first black governor.
``I didn't live up to what was expected of me,'' Spitzer, 48, said today at a Manhattan press conference. ``I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work.''
The resignation of Spitzer, who as New York attorney general gained national prominence through high-profile cases against Wall Street securities firms, brings a sudden and humiliating close to a career spent uncovering and prosecuting the failings of others.
``Power sometimes has a corrosive effect on our strength and our mind,'' said former three-term Republican U.S. Senator for New York Alfonse D'Amato. ``You begin to lose perspective.''
Spitzer had been governor for less than 15 months. He was elected in 2006 with 69 percent of the vote, the highest plurality ever in a New York gubernatorial race, on a promise to shake up the state's politics.
The beginning of the end for Spitzer's governorship came with a March 10 article on the New York Times Web site reporting that he was caught on a federal wiretap planning to meet a prostitute in Washington after arranging for her to travel from New York.
`Client 9'
The Times, citing a person familiar with the federal investigation, said Spitzer was the individual identified in a federal affidavit as ``Client 9,'' who federal prosecutors said paid $4,300 to have sex with a prostitute named ``Kristen'' in the Mayflower Hotel.
``I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard that I expect of myself,'' Spitzer, a former prosecutor, said at a March 10 Manhattan press briefing. The governor, with his wife Silda at his side, didn't take questions or discuss the allegations specifically at that press conference or at today's announcement.
``This is an extraordinary story -- the supernova of American politics collapsing in 14 months,'' said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, strategy director in Spitzer's upset election as state attorney general in 1998.
Spitzer, in a dark suit and blue tie, smiled at reporters as he left his Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan this morning with his wife and aides, declining to answer any questions. They headed downtown in a three-car caravan to his midtown offices, where he announced his resignation.
Prostitution Case
Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, whose office is prosecuting the prostitution case, declined to comment yesterday when asked if Spitzer was under investigation. He hasn't been charged with a crime.
Federal prosecutors on March 6 announced the arrest of four individuals connected to an international prostitution and money- laundering ring called the ``Emperors Club.''
Spitzer's popularity plunged in recent months to among the lowest for a governor in state history. In what New York tabloids dubbed the ``Troopergate'' scandal, his aides were accused last year of directing state police to compile records on Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's use of state-owned aircraft.
Spitzer denied knowledge of the efforts and was never formally accused of wrongdoing. Bruno is now next in line to become governor.
`Excellent Relationship'
He told reporters in Albany this morning he has ``an excellent relationship'' with Paterson.
``We've talked a number of times in the last couple of days and I indicated to him that we will partner going forward,'' Bruno said.
In November, Spitzer abandoned a plan to make drivers licenses available to illegal immigrants after the proposal drew criticism from lawmakers and political commentators.
``When he came in with that landslide election there was certainly talk that he would be our first Jewish president,'' said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, which tracked Spitzer's slide. ``He had a golden future.''
Paterson, the former state lawmaker, may be more successful than Spitzer in negotiating a budget with the legislature, Sheinkopf said. The April 1 deadline for approving a new state budget still finds the state Senate, Assembly and executive branch divided. The Spitzer administration forecast a $4.4 billion deficit last month, with a poor economic outlook reducing the prospects for state revenue.
`More Collegial Environment'
``He's able to talk to people. You'll see a much more collegial environment should he become the governor,'' Sheinkopf said of Paterson in a March 11 interview with Bloomberg radio. ``We know he's a man who gets along with both sides of the aisle. There will be less screaming and yelling, more concentrated effort.''
Paterson, first elected to the state Senate in 1985, is the son of Basil Paterson, a pioneering African-American political leader in New York City who helped forge a Harlem-based political organization that elected former Mayor David Dinkins, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and U.S. Representative Charles Rangel.
``He's highly intelligent, laid back and a humble guy,'' former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said of David Paterson, whose father served as a deputy mayor in Koch's administration.
