Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer took office as New York's governor on the first day of 2007, with a record margin of victory and a profound sense of promise. He resigned on March 12, 2008, in a scandal over his involvement in a sex ring, bringing an abrupt close to a tenure marked by an almost unbroken string of stumbles and frustrations.
His popularity began to dissipate almost immediately after he took office, as Mr. Spitzer repeatedly challenged legislative leaders and lost.
Mr. Spitzer's difficulties were a stark contrast to his long and steady rise. Over the previous eight years as attorney general, Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, gained national recognition as the 'Sheriff of Wall Street' for his pursuit of corporate corruption and his self-styled role as the defender of the American investor. During his campaign, his signature promise was to change state politics "on Day One" of his new administration, with ethics reform high in his sights.
That did not happen. Shortly after taking office, he openly and harshly criticized fellow Democrats who control the Assembly after they installed one of their own, Thomas P. DiNapoli, as the state comptroller. Then he began an increasingly bitter war of words with Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader and the state's top Republican.
All that was a prelude to the scathing report released in late July by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. The report said the Spitzer administration had misused the State Police in an attempt to discredit Mr. Bruno. The report led Mr. Spitzer to indefinitely suspend one top aide and reassign another, and re-assess his strategy and priorities after seven months in office. Other investigations followed in the wake of the attorney general's report.
Mr. Spitzer took yet another political pummeling over his proposal to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, a plan he withdrew in November 2007 after it had drawn angry opposition across the country.
Eliot Laurence Spitzer was born on June 10, 1959, in New York City, where he was raised. The governor is one of three children of the real estate developer Bernard Spitzer, whose fortune has been estimated in the range of $500 million.
Eliot Spitzer's résumé includes stops at Horace Mann, Princeton and Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Silda Wall. He spent six years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office, where he set up a complex sting operation to break the mob's stranglehold on trucking in the garment district.
Mr. Spitzer kicked off his second year in office with a State of the State address that was notably warmer toward his opponents than his first had been. The change was in keeping with what he said was a realization that he would have to temper his combative style to succeed in Albany. Few in the capital thought that would be easy for a man who had often said, "You don't change the world by whispering." But even fewer would have predicted the precipitous end just ahead. — Danny Hakim
Source: nytimes.com
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