Vote Spitzer
Some races are so lopsided they amount more to an anointing than an election. Such is this year’s race for the governor of New York. Eliot Spitzer‘s active, well respected service as Attorney General for the last eight years has given him an aura of invincibility. Even three-term incumbent governor George Pataki dropped out early when it became obvious he didn’t have a matzo ball’s chance on Orchard Street of stopping the Spitzer juggernaut. Nonetheless, he still needs votes to win, which is why I plan to show up at the polls on Tuesday and vote for Eliot Spitzer for Governor; and I ask you to do the same.
When Spitzer first took office as Attorney General in 1998, he was a relative unknown; but he didn’t let that stop him. He rapidly restored integrity to an office that had Dennis Vacco had turned into little more than a political patronage shop for well connected Republicans. Had Spitzer done nothing more than restore the attorney general’s office to its traditional role as a prosecutor of local consumer fraud, he would have been worthwhile. However, he went well beyond that. Taking the federalists at their word, when the Federal government stopped enforcing regulations of all sorts because of “states rights”, this state attorney general picked up the ball and ran with it. He made the New York State Attorney General’s office into one of the premiere prosecutors of white-collar crime of all sorts including securities fraud, Internet scams, antitrust violations, and environmental protection. Spitzer helped New York usurp (or at least augment) California’s traditional role as the state that forces issues the Federal government isn’t willing to touch.
To be honest, I don’t think anybody expected anything like this when we first elected him back in 1998. We were just hoping for an attorney general who wasn’t a political hack, but sometimes you get more than you asked for. Obviously Spitzer saw more possibilities in the office of Attorney General than most people did. He had the vision and the imagination to make it a real force for good in New York and beyond.
New York state’s government hasn’t functioned particularly well in the over two decades I’ve lived here, probably longer; and it seems to just keep getting worse from year to year. The governors we’ve had over the last few decades have been part of the problem; but if there’s anyone who’s ready to kick the status quo in the posterior, and move New York forward, it’s Eliot Spitzer. I don’t really know what he has up his sleeve for his term(s) as governor, but I’m dying to find out. On Tuesday, I urge you to vote for the favorite, Eliot Spitzer.
