Koppell's Painting
A Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-New York Attorney General who is not named Eliot Spitzer is about to be honored in Albany.
On Monday at 5 p.m. in the capitol, an official portrait of Oliver Koppell will be unveiled. The painting will hang on the second floor of the capitol, down the hall from Spitzer's current office.
Koppell was an Assemblyman from the Bronx until 1993, when his colleagues selected him to fill out the remainder of AG Bob Abrams' term.
Among the Democrats who stepped up to challenge Koeppell in the 1994 AG primary was Spitzer, then a lawyer in private practice. Koppell and Spitzer both lost. But Spitzer ran again in 1998 against Koppell and others and you know the rest.
That history may help explain another noteworthy fact about Koppell, who is now a City Councilman in the Bronx: He's the only Democrat I know of who didn't support Spitzer for governor in the general election. (He stayed neutral.)
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 45.8
- 41.6
- Obama +4.2
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 55.6
- 33.0
- +22.6
- McCain
- 52.6
- 34.3
- +18.3
Oliver Koppell...best friends with Allan Jennings when he was in the council...thats all you need to know about ollie
Thanks for mentioning the hanging of my portrait in Albany. However, it is not true that I did not support Elliot Spitzer last fall. He was certainly my choice for Governor. I also want to make it clear that I believe he did an outstanding job as Attorney General and I have said so on many occasions.
Oliver Koppell