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To print article, click Print on your browser's File menu. Go back Posted 12/7/2004 |
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Extra Wall Street crusader runs for governor Headline-grabbing New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announces long-expected bid, hoping to parlay common-man touch into gubernatorial office. By Reuters New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Tuesday he will run for governor in 2006, pledging to use the cleanup tactics he aimed at industry and Wall Street to reform Albany's government gridlock. The Democratic prosecutor, who has ruffled feathers in the business community with his reform efforts, made his announcement on his Web site, www.spitzer2006.com. He has been widely expected to run for the state's highest office for more than a year. Republican Gov. George Pataki has not said whether he will seek a fourth term. Aides have said he would run again, but observers note a fourth term is typically difficult to win and Pataki has long been considered interested in national office.
Spitzer, 45, is considered the top Democrat in the 2006 race, particularly after newly re-elected U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who had been considered a possibility, announced recently he would remain in Washington to head the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. 'It's what I do best' Spitzer, a Harvard University-educated lawyer, first won state office in 1998 on promises of cleaning up political corruption but has focused on financial malfeasance. He tackled mutual funds for overcharging investors and helped forge a $1.4 billion settlement with Wall Street banks over fraudulent stock research. "Right now, New York government is all about partisanship and gridlock. ... I want to fix what's broken. It's what I do best," Spitzer said in his announcement. "We did it in the financial industry and other sectors and we can do it in government. "We believe that we can change things. That's what my candidacy for governor will be all about,'' he said. Spitzer sued former New York Stock Exchange head Richard Grasso over his executive compensation. Most recently, he took on the insurance industry, accusing Marsh & McLennan, the world's largest insurance broker, and other companies of rigging prices and taking kickbacks. Some critics complain the crusading prosecutor tars entire industries when only a few members are at fault, while others say he builds such public cases against companies that they feel coerced to settle rather than fight the charges. Spitzer is expected to elaborate on his plans at a sold-out, $1,000-a-person fund-raiser on Thursday in New York. As well as his high-profile battle to clean up Wall Street, Spitzer has used his office to portray himself as a prosecutor who champions the little man. Among his more offbeat cases have been ones where he secured better working conditions for bathroom attendants and better pay for pretzel vendors in Central Park. |
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