Eliot Spitzer

Finally someone is honoring Silda Wall Spitzer's mortifying role in her husband's debacle rather than criticizing her for it. Harper's Bazaarhas done a photo shoot titled "Stand By Your Man" inspired by the Spitzer sex scandal; it will appear in the magazine's June issue. The images, conceived by photographer Peter Lindbergh, portray the narrative of an uptown couple dealing with a very public political sex scandal. They even recreate the Podium Scene in which Ms. Wall stood beside the former governor with that infamous defeated look on her face. And check out the ascots!

Follow the jump for the rest of the "story."  read more »

If you remember this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner, you weren't there. Felix Gillette, John Koblin, and Choire Sicha flood the zone in D.C..

Janet Silver is moving from Houghton Mifflin to Nan Talese's imprint at Doubleday. Leon Neyfakh checks in with with Ms. Talese who says, "I called Janet and she sent us a list of the authors she had worked with and the ones who’d said they wanted to come with her, if not immediately then eventually." That list may include Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer. Plus: Islam observers on Wieseltier's Amis review; James Frey's PR Dream Team; Spitzer's bio; Nabokov's unfinished novel.  read more »

Portfolio, the business imprint of Penguin Group USA, paid over $350,000 for the rights to a book by Peter Elkind about the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Mr. Elkind, who wrote a cover story about Mr. Spitzer for Fortune in 2005, will be collaborating with filmmaker Alex Gibney, who is working on a Spitzer documentary, the release of which will be timed to the publication of the book.  read more »

A couple of weeks after becoming one of the earliest and loudest critics of Council Speaker Christine Quinn over her proposed member-item reform, John Liu is publicly tweaking another one of his colleagues, this time over a more routine legislative matter.

Here’s a brief clip of Liu during a City Council hearing about biological, chemical and radiological detectors this morning, where he openly questioned the need for the legislation the committee was considering. The bill was introduced by fellow Queens Democrat Peter Vallone, Jr., whose committee meeting Liu was attending.

 read more »

 

Just because Eliot Spitzer is out of office doesn’t mean Republicans are forgetting about him. In fact, if Republican State Senator Serphin Maltese’s first television ad is any indication, we could be seeing a return of Spitzer in a big way this November.  read more »

Unlike most public officials, New York’s hard-charging attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, doesn't keep a written daily schedule.

That's according to his office, which, after two separate Freedom of Information requests from The Observer, finally said that Mr. Cuomo simply didn’t have any pre-existing documentation of his day-to-day professional and political activities that he could make public.

It's the nature of his job, an aide explained.

"The vast majority of the attorney general's time each day is spent working on and being briefed on our cases and investigations," said Benjamin Lawsky, a special assistant and deputy counsel to Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. Cuomo’s office eventually did provide a reconstituted outline of his public schedule between January 2007, when he took office, and April 2008. It is five pages long, listing press conferences, public outings and political events. They said it includes everything of a nonsensitive nature.  read more »

Former Eliot Spitzer fund-raiser Cindy Darrison, who recently was hired to help David Paterson, is working with another candidate in a potentially high-profile race for Manhattan district attorney.

If the seemingly unstoppable 89-year-old Robert Morgenthau decides not to run for reelection, Cyrus Vance, a Manhattan attorney, might.  read more »

The news that David Vitter may soon be called to testify at the trial of Deborah Jean Palfrey—more commonly known as “the D.C. madam”—serves as an important reminder: He’s still in office. And, really, in light of the bipartisan frenzy to expel Eliot Spitzer from the governorship when his ties to the Emperor’s Club were revealed, you've got to wonder why.

It was last July that we first learned that Vitter’s name and phone number were part of Palfrey’s client records between 1999 and 2001.  read more »

In case you were wondering, the departure of State Democratic Party co-chair Dave Pollak does not mean Hillary Clinton's superdelegate count is down. That's because Pollak, a committed Clinton superdelegate, will be replaced by Reggie LaFayette, who is now the party’s second highest-ranking member.

In other words, this is different than the unexpected departure of Eliot Spitzer. David Paterson was already a superdelegate for Clinton, so his ascension to governor resulted in the net-loss of one.  read more »

State Democratic Party co-chair Dave Pollak is leaving his position, the party announced a few minutes ago (right when most people are heading out the door for the weekend).

Pollak had previously run the group Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, which brought political leaders in front of young professionals and provided a place for those leaders to recruit campaign operatives and legislative employees.

Pollak, along with chair June O’Neill, was hand-picked by Eliot Spitzer to run the party after the departure of former chair Herman Denny Farrell. Pollak was charged (naturally) with bringing the party into the 21st century.

The departure comes amid a number of personnel changes David Paterson has made to replace Eliot Spitzer's hires with his own.

Here is the official statement:  read more »

Tom Freston has put Andy Warhol's East 66th Street apartment on the market for $38.5 million, according to Page Six. The 12-room, six story apartment was originally bought by Mr. Warhol for $310,000 in 1974; Mr. Freston bought the property in 2000 for $6.5 million. [P6]  read more »

While much of former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s economic development agenda seems to be on hold or in flux (e.g. Moynihan Station, for one), his once controversial plan for the Javits Convention Center has outlived his tenure.

The Paterson administration is trekking down the path of a renovation and modest expansion for Javits, with plans for an additional 50,000 square feet of exposition space and a truck storage area. The budget, at least as of a few weeks ago, was $1.3 billion for the whole ordeal, $300 million or so less than the amount approved for a much larger expansion and renovation under the Pataki administration (which the Spitzer folks later found to have a true cost of more than $3 billion).  read more »

The Troopergate investigators are being investigated, according to a statement released just now from the Chairman of the New York State Commission on Investigations, Alfred Lerner.

He said the commission “has renewed its investigation into this whole matter," but added this:

"Let me be clear. The Commission is not investigating the events concerning Troopergate; more than enough investigations of the issues surrounding those events have taken or are taking place. Rather, the Commission is investigating the investigations. We are seeking to determine the efficacy of the various investigatory efforts, including those of the Albany County District Attorney, the State Inspector General and the State Commission on Public Integrity.  read more »

The Troopergate report (pdf) that came out on Friday has some great back-room gossip between Eliot Spitzer and one of his top aides, Rich Baum, about a Times story.  read more »

Albany County District Attorney David Soares' office just made a partial release of his report on Troopergate. The announcement gives these caveats:

"Due to the terms of the limited waiver agreements executed by the District Attorney and the Executive Chamber, we are unable to release the complete analysis until privilege issues of first impression are resolved with former Governor Spitzer and Governor Paterson.  read more »

Over on the Politicker, The Observer's Azi Paybarah reports:

Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice confirmed to me just now that he is considering writing a biography about the former governor, and has been contacted by at least two publishers about such a project.

“I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other,” Barrett said in a brief telephone interview.

Read the rest of Mr. Barrett's thoughts on this potential project here.

Eliot Spitzer’s career in public service may be over, but the race to tell the story is just getting under way.

Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice confirmed to me just now that he is considering writing a biography about the former governor, and has been contacted by at least two publishers about such a project.

“I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other,” Barrett said in a brief telephone interview.  read more »

Andrew Cuomo’s office just released two letters related to the Troopergate investigation.

The first, dated yesterday, is from Albany County District Attorney David Soares to David Paterson's office, asking that the governor waive privileges to documents related to Troopergate. (Soares is expected to issue his second report on the effort to smear Joe Bruno later this week.)  read more »

David Paterson is still adding to his string of confessions.

“I tried it a couple of times,” he said in an interview with NY1 News, when asked if he had ever used cocaine.

It was his first television interview since he became governor last week.

Host Dominic Carter asked Paterson a number of questions about past drug use. The governor also admitted he has used marijuana, but added that he has not touched illegal drugs since his early twenties.  read more »

A curious reader wondered whether Eliot Spitzer might be using leftover campaign cash, as opposed to his personal money, to pay for his new spokeswoman and private security detail. (As of the last filing, Spitzer had $2.9 million in campaign funds at his disposal, and the rules governing what he can do with that money are a "gray area".)

The answer, according to spokeswoman Anna Cordasco, is no. Spitzer is paying for both, she said, "out of his own pocket."

Eliot Spitzer proposed in his State of the State Address in January that the Triborough Bridge be renamed for the late New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, one of the fallen governor's fiercest opponents, has introduced a bill to do just that [last item] .

David Paterson just nominated a new superintendent of state police, retired State Police Colonel Harry Corbitt.

At a press conference in his Midtown office, Paterson declined to say the nomination is in any way connected to the state police involvement in Eliot Spitzer's effort to discredit Joe Bruno.  read more »

David Paterson is favorably viewed by 58 percent of voters, and unfavorably by only 10 percent, according to a new Siena poll out this morning. Sixty percent of voters also think that the change from Eliot Spitzer to Paterson will be good for the state.

The poll was conducted between March 17 and 21, over the course of last week, while news of Paterson’s own extramarital affairs was surfacing. A Siena pollster is quoted as saying that the opinions of respondents did not change as the survey went on.

Buried way down in the New York Post story about a madam who is saying that she knows Eliot Spitzer paid to watch couples have sex is a less tawdry piece of news: It looks like Spitzer has hired a new spokeswoman.

"Anna Cordasco, a spokeswoman for Spitzer, said, 'These are completely outrageous fabrications.'

Cordasco is a managing director at Sard Verbinnen & Co., a firm that handles “strategic corporate, financial and crisis communications.”

She's also the spokeswoman Nancy Grace hired after a guest on her CNN show committed suicide.

New Yorkers have high expectations for David Paterson, a new Quinnipiac poll shows, with 75 percent believing that he will govern effectively, 46 percent holding a favorable opinion, and only 3 percent having an unfavorable opinion. (The data was collected between March 16 and 18, and one pollster is quoted as saying opinions shifted slightly after news broke of his affairs).

The poll also shows that, given four choices, New Yorkers overall like Michael Bloomberg for the next governor. He earned 29 percent to Paterson’s 27 percent, although Paterson leads Bloomberg among Democrats. Andrew Cuomo was in fourth place, with 11 percent. The third most favored choice was Rudy Giuliani, who took first place with Republican voters.

Here's the release:  read more »

I had a thing at the Met this morning, and on the way back to the office walked by 985 Fifth Avenue. That's the building from which Eliot Spitzer dashed a week ago today to go resign as New York's governor.

Last week, the apartment building--which Mr. Spitzer's father Bernard developed in the late 1960's--teemed with gawkers and media. Today, raindrops smacked the empty pavement outside.  read more »

Voters were “stunned” and also “dumbstruck,” said the AP. It was just a “bombshell,” this admission from the governor.

This was August 12, 2004. “You’re right,” said David Lee Miller on Fox News. “This is nothing less than a stunning announcement broadcast live.”

But who was stunned?  read more »

Admittedly, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of David Paterson’s unorthodox debut as governor. But one detail to keep in mind—as difficult as that is at the moment for anyone who’s not a direct participant in the budget process in Albany—is that he’s still in charge.

>> David Paterson and the Art of the Leak By Choire Sicha  read more »

From Jacob Gershman at The Sun:

One of the women with whom Paterson admitted to having an affair — between 1999 and 2001 — was employed at the time in the office of the Attorney General under Mr. Spitzer.

She's now employed in the executive chamber and serves under Mr. Paterson, who said he would leave it up to her to decide whether to leave the administration. Two Spitzer administration officials identified the woman as the director of community affairs for the office of intergovernmental affairs, Lila Kirton.

During a nearly half-hour press conference at the state capitol in Albany, David Paterson said he has had affairs with "several" women, two of whom had at one point been on the state payroll.

The governor, who was accompanied by his wife Michelle, said it is a personal matter and did not violate any laws.  read more »

Darren Dopp, wearing a jacket and tie, talks to a few reporters in the L.G.A. (Legislative Correspondents Association), just like old times.

Understandably, commenters on Eliot Spitzer’s humiliating demise have drawn parallels to another nearby governor felled by a sex scandal, New Jersey’s Jim McGreevey. But the better comparison is between Spitzer and Jon Corzine, one of McGreevey’s successors.

Both Spitzer and Corzine followed the same basic path to their respective state capitols, outsiders who called themselves reformers and railed against business as usual to general public, while simultaneously enjoying the unflinching backing of powerful establishment forces and mighty party machines.

Both men had unusual leverage with party bosses, who quickly calculated that opposing them in party primaries would be futile and costly. Spitzer’s trump card was his priceless reputation as the “sheriff of Wall Street,” which translated into such enormous popularity with the average voter that the 2006 New York election was a coronation from the moment he entered it. And in New Jersey, Corzine had his cash, which he promised to shower on the state’s powerful Democratic organizations if they backed him in his 2005 campaign – or to use against them if they dared oppose him.  read more »

A spokesman for the state police just got back to me on a question I asked him this morning about Eliot Spitzer's security detail.

From Lt. Glenn Miner:"Governor Spitzer's security will end at close of business today, at which time he will have his own private security in place."

 

Here’s the first eight minutes of now-Governor David Paterson’s swearing-in ceremony, as broadcast by CNN. This clip doesn’t show the climax of the speech, where he reintroduced himself and said, “I am Governor of New York!” but it gives a sense of the new governor’s tone.  read more »

Democratic consultant Bill Lynch, who has been giving advice to incoming Governor David Paterson, was hanging out this morning outside the executive chambers on the second floor of the Capitol.

I asked Lynch about reports that people are coming out of the woodwork to ask Paterson for favors and jobs.  read more »

Al Sharpton just told reporters on the second floor of the Capitol building in Albany that David Paterson "is probably the most conservative of our generation of black leadership."

Chatting with a few reporters in the hallway on the third floor of the Capitol in Albany this morning, Chuck Schumer said of David Paterson, "It’s not fair to say ‘Oh, he’s going to hit the ground running on day one.’

"He was--we all were--totally shocked and unprepared for this. But he is a great, he learns in every way,” Schumer went on. “I think he’s going to be really good.”

Schumer downplayed the notion that Spitzer's sex scandal will affect a wider swath of Democrats.  read more »

Here's Chuck Schumer chatting with Fred Dicker during his radio show in the Capitol building in Albany.

Schumer told Dicker he became closer to Spitzer after he became governor, but has not spoken to him since the scandal broke because he wants to wait until "the dust settles."

When Dicker pressed him on how exactly that dust will settle (with criminal charges? with jail time?), Schumer said he was unsure.

When David Paterson is sworn in as governor in a few hours here in Albany, the faces that surround him--drawn from his many years as a legislator and Senate minority leader--will likely be familiar to lawmakers, lobbyists and reporters.

Lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh, as a result, expects Paterson's transition to be smoother than Eliot Spitzer's.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer's photograph was removed from the wall in the room where reporters file their stories in the Capitol building in Albany.

It was placed on the floor, facing the wall in the corner.

UPDATE: A source at the L.C.A. said Spitzer's picture will go up in another location here once a suitable place is found.