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"Steamroller" Spitzer Versus Silver and State Dems
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 31, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 31, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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We couldn't even get through Governor Spitzer's first month before a "showdown with Assembly Speaker Silver." State Democrats have been saying they feel betrayed - or, in the words of Manhattan Assemblyman Keith Wright to NY1, "totally, totally disrespected" - because the panel formed by Spitzer to select State Comptroller candidates didn't select any of their choices. State Democrats claim the panel was supposed to pick five candidates, including a Democratic Assemblyman interested in the job, but when the panel recommended three non-lawmaker candidates, all hell has broken loose. Spitzer claims the panel would choose up to five candidates, but now it looks like the Democrats will reject those Spitzer-approved candidates. We bet Alan Hevesi is smiling somewhere over this.
But the Democrats will have to watch out: Spitzer's toughness showed through when people overheard him yell at Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco on the phone. Tedisco was upset that he wasn't involved in negotiations for a new state ethics law, so Spitzer said, "Listen, I'm a f---ing steamroller, and I'll roll over you and anybody else!" Yow! Although maybe he had been listening to James Taylor, who did perform at the the inauguration.
Here's more info on the candidates for comptroller.
Photograph of NY State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Governor Eliot Spitzer, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver by Tim Roske/AP; Bruno claims he doesn't remember the agreement over the number of comptroller candidates
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Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
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State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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