NEW YORK — Eliot Spitzer has said that if he is elected comptroller he will use the powers of the office aggressively, bringing the same brand of prosecutorial zeal to the job that made him feared on Wall Street.
The comptroller’s office, he has said in interview after interview, does more than just count how many paper clips were bought and delivered. The office has untapped political power to shape urban policy.
New York City voters have heard similar sentiments in the past.
At his 2010 inauguration, current Comptroller John Liu said he would leverage the powers of the office “in the most robust manner for the city” and would “maximize” its potential. Liu’s predecessor was more explicit four years earlier. "I entered office determined to be an activist comptroller," said a victorious Bill Thompson during his second inauguration in 2006, "by aggressively using the powers of my office to find new, creative ways to save the taxpayers money and to put our resources to work for all New Yorkers."
Spitzer’s take on the powers of the city's chief financial officer immediately grabbed headlines. Spectators argued that if anybody could grow the role of the comptroller's office, the steamroller could. But those arguments discounted the fact that the comptroller's office has long enjoyed a strong role in policymaking, and that the degree and intensity with which it drives policy depends on who is at the wheel.
"You can't always separate finances from policy," said Liz Holtzman, a former comptroller and congresswoman. "It's not anything new. The question is the comptroller's priority and vision."
And while past comptrollers have long championed policy causes, they have also couched their successes on their ability to build consensus — a trait that has never been seen as one of Spitzer’s strongest.
One of only three citywide elected seats in New York City, the comptroller is in charge of making sure that the city is in good financial health. He or she looks at the city budget every year, advising both the mayor and the City Council.
Lacking the singular power of the mayor or the ambiguity of the public advocate, a comptroller’s success can actually be quantified: He or she is tasked with overseeing and maximizing $139.2 billion in pension funds for retired teachers, police officers, firefighters and other municipal workers. The office does give comptrollers latitude with investment and divestment power, which can be used to pressure or reward companies on issues relevant to their industries.
In May, Liu, who is running for mayor, announced that at least one of the city’s pension funds had fully divested its stock holdings of publicly traded gun and ammunition manufacturers after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Conn. The fund withdrew its money from five companies at a combined value of more than $16 million.
But influence over the pensions is merely one tool that comptrollers wield. They are also responsible for auditing city agencies and for making sure that contracts that the city enters into are fiscally solvent and responsible. While comptrollers can’t be entirely selective about what or who they audit, they are given some leeway.
While Spitzer's campaign did not reply to multiple inquiries from Gotham Gazette, recent interviews with former comptrollers and advocates provided a view into one of the least well known elected offices in the city and how it can be used as a tool.
The most successful comptrollers use their auditing powers to help recoup funds for the city, argued Maria Doulis of the Citizens Budget Committee, as well as how the office issues bonds to refinance the city's debt.
"Comptrollers have a lot of responsibility," Doulis said. "It's just that it's not in the limelight."
That may not be the case if Spitzer wins the Democratic primary. Still, Spitzer has yet to define exactly what policy realms he would weigh in on as comptroller other than his stock in trade on corporate oversight and public education.
During his time as governor-elect, Spitzer celebrated a 2006 court decision that promised billions in required funding for New York City schools.
"As I said at the time, and I believe just as deeply now, spending the money is the easy part," Spitzer said during an interview last week with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, during which the former governor repeated his promise to look at education spending. "Making sure you're doing wisely is the much more difficult part."
During the same interview, however, Spitzer belied his own headline-making claims and admitted that there's been a long tradition of comptrollers active in social policy. In fact, he said, the power is already enshrined in the city's governing document. "The courts have interpreted the audit power of the comptroller to extend to that type of substantive conversation,” he said.
Whatever Spitzer may have in store for the comptroller’s seat, he's not the only one with a policy record hoping to take the seat.
Previously the leading and lone Democrat in the race, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said that nothing that Spitzer has proposed is groundbreaking.
"That's an obligation — that's a great tradition — of this job," Stringer told the Gotham Gazette, explaining that the city has helped shape corporate and social justice reform, including in the 1980s when the city used its pension to companies against selling products to South Africa during apartheid.
"I've been doing these proposals and this work for many years," said Stringer, a former assemblyman and a sitting trustee on the New York City Employees' Retirement System. "But I welcome my opponent, who is new to this."
Either Stringer or Spitzer would face Wall Street executive-turned-Republican candidate John Burnett and Kristin Davis, the "Manhattan Madam" currently running on the Libertarian ticket.
At least one former comptroller agrees with Stringer that the office is already a strong platform for advocacy.
"There's a lot of power in the office to begin with," said mayoral candidate Bill Thompson at a press event last week. "There's a lot of power in the office right now that can harnessed on behalf of the people of the city of New York by whoever the next comptroller is."
Some question if Thompson himself exerted his fullest potential as comptroller during his two terms. After Thompson lost his 2009 mayoral bid to Michael Bloomberg, City Limits revealed that the comptroller's office under his watch had filed 626 audits since taking office in 2002.
Most of those, however, took place at the beginning of his term, and average about 80 audits a year between 2005 and 2008. Comparatively, that's still more than his replacement and mayoral rival, John Liu, who has fluctuated between 60 and 80 audits a year since taking office in 2009.
Even so, one of Liu's audits was also one of the city's most damning in recent history. His 2011 audit of the Bloomberg administration’s automated payroll system known as CityTime revealed that what started out as a $70 million contract exploded to more than $700 million. The city eventually managed to recoup $500 million.
Liu also hasn't shied away from being a counterweight to the mayor's office or Wall Street, especially on social policy issues.
In addition to helping pave the way for the divestment from gun manufacturers earlier this year, Liu has sharply criticized American companies that employ labor in unsafe Bangladeshi factories.
And the comptroller helped lead the (so far unsuccessful) charge against JPMorgan Chase — with which the city has $500 million invested — to wrestle away at least one job title from the bank's Chief Executive and Chairman Jamie Dimon in the wake of its $6 billion in losses over the so-called London Whale trading scandal.
He's even managed to turn the financial impact of misconduct complaints against the New York Police Department into a solid platform against the city's controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Liu is the singular mayoral candidate in 2013 promising to eradicate the policy — which has brought him in conflict with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Bloomberg.
"The goal is not to be at odds with the mayor's office, although at times it may be," said Deputy Comptroller Ari Hoffnung, who has worked under Liu since he took over the office.
The political reality is that while the city charter doesn't explicitly enumerate policy powers, it's unavoidable that the person heading the city' purse strings would have some say on how that money is spent.
"The office forces you to be a critical player in a number of issues," said Holtzman, who many political observers celebrate as a proactive and independent comptroller.
She was no stranger to the policy debate. Serving between 1990 and 1993, Holtzman came into the office after serving eight years in the House of Representatives and another eight as Brooklyn district attorney.
By 1992, that policy acumen helped her stall plans to build a new garbage incinerator, which would have cost the city a $1 billion contract and countless health issues for New Yorkers.
"We issued those reports — they undergirded those efforts," she told the Gazette, recalling the letter she wrote to then-Mayor David Dinkins and the City Council that listed violations of environmental and corruption laws by the company that was hoping to build to incinerator.
"We did very important policy work on some big-ticket items," Holtzman added. "The office has the capability of doing that."
She also recognized that her office had more power back before her; Holtzman came into office right after the city revised its charter to eliminate the Board of Estimate.
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the eight-member panel — on which the comptroller sat in along with the mayor, the Council leader and five borough presidents — violated the Constitution's equal protection clause.
That didn't stop Holtzman from figuring out how to best influence urban policy.
Before she lobbied against the incinerator, she also helped steer the national conversation on environmentalism. Barely three months into her term as comptroller, she used joined other comptrollers from major cities to pressure the Exxon oil company to address concerns after the Exxon-Valdez spill.
She even laid the groundwork for a bill to make gun manufacturers and dealers liable for harm or death caused in the course of a criminal act. Drafting the bill in 1995, Mayor Bloomberg signed the bill 10 years later.
While the comptroller's office still holds considerable power and influence on how the city administers much of its money and, as a result, general urban policy, cooperation and the ability to compromise is also key to the job.
"You're a steward, a custodian, in a lot of key areas," said Gerrard Patrick Bushell, a former director of intergovernmental relations for state Comptroller H. Carl McCall.
Bushell, a board member of Gotham Gazette's sister organization Citizens Union, described how a comptroller needs to bring about consensus amongst a large group of strong-willed individuals.
A comptroller is only one voice of many on the pension boards; has to work with scores of agency heads to properly conduct audits; and submits recommendations to a budget handled by countless City Hall staffers and leaders.
"The comptroller doesn't exist outside of other players in the city," he said, especially in a city with strong mayoral influence.
For Scott Stringer, it means that being the sheriff might be somewhat overrated.
"This is a job where you can't be a lone ranger," Stringer said. "You have to be someone who can be collaborative."
Stringer can already count on that spirit of collaboration with at least three Democratic mayoral hopefuls. Besides Thompson, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have rallied behind the outgoing borough president.
(Liu, while not publicly endorsing Stringer, recently said that he's "incensed for the sheer disrespect" that Spitzer's bid for comptroller and former Congressman Anthony Weiner's mayoral run show towards New York City women. Quinn has made similar statements of her own.)
It remains to be seen just how well Spitzer can play with others as comptroller. His record certainly shows a streak of independence and willingness to take on the political establishment.
The question is whether he can reconcile that with his appetite for conflict and uncompromising passion for winning — an image that he's tried to shed in recent days with a more humbled tone.
Regardless of who becomes the city's next comptroller, Holtzman suggested that the office requires that delicate balance between independence and cooperation with other agencies and leadership for the city's overall benefit.
"You can't just be out there and spit at the mayor," she said. “It's not going to work."
NEW YORK — Joe Lhota, the Republican mayoral candidate whose leadership of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been credited with helping to stave off calamity to the city's subway system during Hurricane Sandy last year, is often considered a seasoned manager of large, untidy bureaucracies. It is a well-deserved reputation. He held positions in the Rudy Giuliani administration, including as budget director and deputy mayor of operations. He was MTA chief from 2011 to 2012. During an interview with the Gotham Gazette at his campaign office near Grand Central Terminal, he responded to questions on various public policy issues, from the budget to the Community Safety Act (which he called the "Community Un-Safety Act").
GG: The City Council and mayor recently approved a new city budget, so that seems like a good place to start. Do you think the so-called “budget dance” is a distraction from actual debate about budget priorities?
LHOTA: See, I look at the dance as starting in January. When the public talks about the dance, they are really just talking about what they think is what happens in regards to the executive budget in connection with member items, which is just a minor, minor piece, about $300 to $400 million dollars. And quite honestly, that budget dance starts at the beginning. The city charter, the lowercase “c” constitution of the city, lays out the process for the dance.
GG: So you’re not critical of the budget dance?
LHOTA: I’m not critical of the budget process at all.
GG: What do you think of the way that discretionary funding is distributed to City Council members for their district?
LHOTA: Some members, some people running for mayor have actually called for the end of Council member items. I'm not at that level yet. I think it … needs to be open and transparent.
GG: The city’s open data law is a national model. What would you do to make sure that the city continues to be at the forefront of the open government movement, and how would you get agencies to comply with the law?
LHOTA: Originally the MTA was saying we will develop the app and I said no. Let us put the data out there, let other people develop the app and, if you go into the store where you can buy the apps on your smartphone, there are about 12 or 13 different app providers that will provide you that same level of data because we have let it out there. The MTA is not in the business of creating apps. The MTA is in the business of moving people from point A to point B and knowing exactly where the trains are, let us tell the world where the trains are and let them decide how we do it. That is this same thing with city government we are going to do.
What amazes me is that there still is a long, long way to go for the city to be technologically at the cutting edge because we are not near the cutting edge; there are other municipalities around the county who are much more advanced than we are. I encourage you to look at a magazine called Government Technology, which I used to get when I was deputy mayor.
GG: What would you do as mayor to get agency heads to promote technology innovation?
LHOTA: That’s an even broader question than the specific one you asked. How would I go about making sure I hire commissioners who are technologically savvy? It is going to be a component … I will no doubt have different task forces for dealing with the health commissioner and this commissioner, and that commissioner. But they need to be more than just an expert in that area. They also need to show some technological savvy. It is going to be a key component in the selection of any commissioner.
The one thing I will tell you about technology, technology brings out in government the phrase I hate the most which is, "We have never done it that way before." You hear it a lot and you would hear it a lot and that's exactly what you don't want. Of course, you have never done it that way before. That is why it is called technology.
GG: Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Department of Education received considerable financial and professional support from the private sector. What role should the private sector — either business people or companies — play in financing, shaping or steering the DOE and its policies?
LHOTA: It is interesting, I talked a lot about charter schools and some people automatically assume charter schools are subsidized. There is one charter school program, Uncommon Schools, it is called, where the private sector contributions started and then after that there are no more contributions. All they use to fund that operation is the money they receive from the city of New York. I think it is a very, very good model.
I don't want to do anything to discourage the private sector from philanthropic efforts, we need to continue that.
GG: How much control should the next mayor have over the city’s subways and buses? Should the city wrestle control over mass transit from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority?
LHOTA: The transportation world in this city balkanized. It truly is. You have major roads in New York City that are controlled by the sate. For example, the FDR drive, is not a city road. It is a state road and the state repairs and upkeeps it. You have the MTA, which has the subways and buses and the bridges and tunnels.
What I have been calling for, just as an aside, is that the bridges and tunnels need to be given back to the mayor. They were taken away from the mayor in 1968 by the Legislature at the request of Gov. Rockefeller. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority still exists; it is a subsidiary of the MTA. I have called as a candidate to have the mayor take over the TBTA again because that way they can control the tolls over there because tolls are going up for the purposes of subsidizing things unrelated to the bridges and tunnels.
I think what I would like to do, that existed pre-Mike Bloomberg is the Mayor’s Office of Transportation. It was a coordinating body between all of them. In fact Janette Sadik-Khan was the head of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation during the Dinkins administration.
Their role was to make sure the city was heard at every level within every one of those agencies, so much so that the mayor’s representatives on the MTA board would meet with the Mayor’s Office of Transportation before committee meetings, before board meetings, and understand what the committee and what the city wanted from the MTA, and so it was very important.
There really needs to be an overall effort to try to get everyone to work together. That is one of the reasons I want the bridges and tunnels — by the way, the bridges and tunnels only connect the five boroughs. They don't go to Nassau County, they don't go to Westchester County. They only connect one borough to another borough. In one case in the Rockaways, [a bridge] connects Queens to Queens.
So the people who want to go from one side of the borough to the other side of the borough have to pay a toll. It is amazing how inequitable that seems to be. I don't know any other place in the country where it costs you money to go in the same county from one side to the other side. The mayor and City Council should control all of the bridges and tunnels in the five boroughs. Then there will be the beginning of less balkanization going on because then you will be able to control the ability to get from one borough to another borough and have a cohesive or at least a coherent transportation policy and strategy, maybe strategy then policy.
GG: The bridges and tunnels, but not the subways.
LHOTA: Quite honestly the subsidy that is provided by the state to mass transit is voluminous and we can't lose that subsidy. The subsidy right now on the transit ride — about 50 percent of the cost for your subway ride, and I'm going to be off by a couple percentages, but it's about 50-50. Fifty percent of the cost of the subway ride comes from the fare and the other 50 percent comes from the state in the form of subsidies.
But those subsidies are different things, they can take the form of every time you get in a cab, 50 cents goes to the MTA. Every time you have a new mortgage, you have something called the mortgage recording tax, that goes to the MTA. Again, even the subsidies’ streams are balkanized.
Maybe I know too much because I'm wonkish on this issue. But you can't just say the mayor should take over the MTA without realizing the fiscal implications. It needs to be a much more comprehensive answer than we are just going to take it over.
GG: Sam Schwartz, the well known transportation policy expert, has come out with a new plan for how tolls can be priced, which some describe as “congestion pricing” but he does not. What do you think of the plan?
LHOTA: No question it's creative, no question it's innovative, and it would require all of these disparate governmental functions to sit at a table together and agree, that I'm going to charge less, you're going to charge more, you're going to pay me back, it's a swapping of money. That's because these revenue streams that are created by the Port Authority, by the MTA, by the city, by the state, anyone else is involved in this area, they already have dedicated uses to where this is going, they're going to say why.
GG: Is that where your plan for bringing back the Mayor’s Office of Transportation would come into play?
LHOTA: The Mayor’s Office of Transportation would never be that powerful. It will at least be able to try to have a cohesive, coherent policy coming from the mayors office, coming from the direction of the city. Look, Sam's idea is innovative and creative, but at the same point I think it's extremely controversial and how it will ever pass I just don't know. By the way, the other people sitting at the table are the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. They have a very big role in this and, quite honestly, their role through the Public Authority's Control board has what I call Security Council rules, anybody who says no and the entire issue falls. It's not a majority rule situation … which is what you have the Security Council at the United Nations. All you need is one member of the Security Council to say “nyet,” like they used to say during the Cold War, and it fails. It doesn't go forward. Those are the same rules you have in Albany.
GG: What do you think of the two public safety bills that were recently approved by the City Council under what is being called the Community Safety Act? One law would establish an independent inspector general to monitor the New York Police Department. The other gives individuals the right to sue for racial profiling by the NYPD.
LHOTA: I'm against the inspector general. I also think the Community Safety Act is misnamed, I think it's the “Community Un-safety Act.” I think it's going to do everything to make it more difficult for the police to do their job, handcuffing them in many ways. And I believe it makes us unsafe.
I encourage everybody, I really mean this, and this gets overly wonky. There is a court case called Terry v. Ohio, 1988, written by Earl Warren, the chief justice at the time, which gives permission for cops, police officers to stop anyone if they believe that person is doing anything suspicious. This was passed by the Supreme Court eight to one. It has been the guidelines for the police department here and around the country.
GG: Do you think the mayor's tactic of using his wealth to influence the passage of the bill is a good strategy?
LHOTA: Let me turn it on its head and ask you a theoretical question. Do you think it's a good idea for the governor to go out and raise money for something called a Committee to Save New York, to lobby the state Legislature on his proposals?
This has been going on since the beginning of time in democracy. The distinction is that Mike Bloomberg may be the only one funding it … I have no idea what it is like to be a billionaire, to be able to do these types of things. This concept of elected officials going outside asking to raise money to affect the legislative process is nothing new; it's just a continuation of what has been going on in this country for quite sometime.
Did you see the most recent Abraham Lincoln movie?
What is amazing is that I saw it in a theatre in lower Manhattan and, after it was all over, there were these two little ladies right in front of me and they were probably 70s, 80s and a major portion of the film was the fact that Lincoln asked his Secretary of State, that at the time was leading the charge for the 13th Amendment, to go out and hire lobbyists to lobby the Congress to be able to get the bill passed and these two little old ladies said, "Do you believe it, they had lobbyists back then?” And it was just like, “Lady, there have been lobbyists since the beginning.” There were lobbyists in Rome at the Roman Senate; there were people that did that.
So that the idea Mike Bloomberg is doing something new and different, he's not. Is it fair? We're a country where you're allowed to express your opinion. It's a First Amendment right and you can do it with money.
— Intern Daniel Stein-Sayles contributed research assistance.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Eliot Spitzer thrived as attorney general. He investigated Wall Street and took down white-collar crooks with such zeal and willfulness he was called “The Sheriff of Wall Street.”
As governor, Spitzer used the same brazen — some would say bullying — tactics against obstinate legislators. Unwilling to compromise or negotiate, he found his efforts frustrated until he had squandered his immense political capital and resigned amid a prostitution scandal in 2008.
After a five-year hiatus from the political scene, Spitzer re-emerged this week to announce a run for the comptroller’s office.
While it’s impossible to forecast how Spitzer would act as comptroller, this much is clear: Spitzer in that office could prove especially troublesome for the next mayor. The comptroller’s office is tasked with monitoring city spending and analyzing contracts, and its work often rubs up against the mayor’s initiatives.
“I pity whoever is the next mayor because, with the powers of comptroller, this guy is going to be on the mayor’s case on a daily basis,” Baruch College political science professor Doug Muzzio said in an interview this week. “This office is a stepping stone and he’s gotta step on the mayor.”
Spitzer said on the Charlie Rose Show earlier today that he had changed. “I hope that I have become a bit more accepting of alternative views, desires to listen,” he said to guest host Mark Halperin. “A bit more reflective and empathetic.”
A look back at Spitzer’s record in Albany as both attorney general and governor shows that while he was able to build on his resume and attract attention, he also thrived on conflict and was unwilling or unable to compromise.
Those characteristics proved valuable when he was an attorney general and the goal was to prosecute cases; they became a liability when he was governor and when working with the Legislature required a more subtle form of negotiation.
Spitzer’s short tenure in the governor’s mansion from January 2007 to March 17, 2008, was typified by setbacks, personal conflict with legislators and an insistence that he get exactly what he wanted, when he wanted it. Threats were Spitzer’s favorite legislative tool.
Spitzer notoriously told Assemblyman Jim Tedisco after the lawmaker resisted his call to support him at a press conference on an ethics deal: “I’m a f---- steamroller and I will roll over you and anyone else! I’ve done more in three weeks than any governor in the history of the state.”
Spitzer’s failure to use the governor’s office was a surprise to many who saw Spitzer’s use of the attorney general’s office as masterful.
“During his time as AG he almost created a new paradigm for the attorney general’s office and for use of Martin Act,” Muzzio said, referring to the law that dates back to the 1920s and gives the attorney general expansive powers to investigate financial fraud — more power than almost any other public officer in the country.
Using the powers under the Act, Attorney General Spitzer battled securities fraud, brought cases against a myriad of investment banks like Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs, and charged Richard Grasso the chair of the NY Stock Exchange with violating his position as head of the then nonprofit by taking too large of a salary.
Those cases generated splashy headlines and earned Spitzer a reputation as a no-nonsense prosecutor in the people’s interest. He made sure the media had the pictures of alleged bad actors to splash all over front pages and evening news. That made Spitzer more than his share of enemies in the business world, but they were in no position to block his agenda. That situation changed when he became governor.
Spitzer only spent a year in office running the state. While he rammed through some reforms, he soon found himself repeatedly stymied by the leadership of powerful Republican state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.
Bruno blocked a number of issues that were important to Democrats, including Spitzer, for years on issues like same-sex marriage, Rockefeller Drug Law reform, and rent law reform. Bruno was all-powerful as head of the Senate and controlled his conference with great precision.
Spitzer and Bruno also battled over Spitzer’s budget, especially Spitzer’s plan to reduce healthcare spending. Bruno also steadfastly opposed Spitzer’s evangelical push for campaign finance reform.
In response, Spitzer poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a special election for a Republican-held senate seat through the state Democratic Party. The effort proved successful, and Spitzer began the trend that saw Democrats take the majority in the Senate in 2008. But Spitzer was not in power to reap the rewards.
Eventually, the Spitzer administration was caught using state police resources to try to track Bruno’s use of state aircraft for political ends. “Troopergate,” as the scandal came to be known, and the investigations that followed, bogged Spitzer down in a grueling battle with the Legislature and the press — until The New York Times reported that Spitzer had frequented high-priced prostitutes in other states and structured payments to avoid detection. Spitzer called a press conference in the city and, with his wife by his side, he resigned.
It was an especially shocking denouement given that Spitzer’s run for governor was less a political campaign and more a coronation. News outlets from around the world reported breathlessly about how the Sheriff of Wall Street would soon take to the governor’s mansion.
“He came in with such fanfare and hope that it made the plummet that much greater,” said Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Haven said he saw Spitzer as being genuine in his push for real reform in Albany. Spitzer did launch a successful push for ethics reform and he noted that Spitzer’s ethics body — the Commission on Public Integrity — was a precursor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ethics panel.
But Haven said when the Troopergate scandal hit there were leaks from the CPI to the Spitzer administration. Those leaks and Spitzer’s insistence that he appoint the majority of members to the CPI have weighed heavy on legislators who are reluctant to allow anyone to police them. Spitzer’s meddling in ethics reform may have soured legislators on future proposals.
David Grandeau, who was ousted from his position as head of the state’s lobbying commission when Spitzer pushed through the new CPI, said that he feels Spitzer came to Albany with a “holier than thou attitude” and wanted Albany to do as he said, not do as he did.
He said Spitzer should not have the chance to return to politics. “I’m old fashioned,” Grandeau said. “Once you have squandered your public service you should go away. You have destroyed your honor and privilege.”
Grandeau also said he still thinks there are outstanding issues with Spitzer’s time in office that need to be dealt with, including whether the former governor violated the public officers law by using a state plane to travel to Washington, D.C., where he had arranged a meet-up at a hotel with a prostitute. “Let’s deal with that before he returns to public office,” he said.
So what about the comptroller’s office? Is it a good fit for Spitzer? Muzzio thinks so. “It suits his abilities like the attorney general’s office does,” he said. “The powers are delimited but it is an extremely powerful office.”
In other words, Spitzer would be his own boss again, would have subpoena power and have clear foils — Wall Street and the next mayor of New York City.
But he said that New Yorkers should get ready for war and gridlock between Spitzer and Weiner if both men are elected. “There is a potential thrilla in Manilla situation with Tyson biting off ears type of stuff,” he said, referring to the much-hyped third boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and the boxing bout between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield where Tyson bit off a bit of Holyfield’s ear.
“The reporters will love it, but for the rest of us it will mean gridlock,” Muzzio said.