Governor-elect Spitzer’s decision to name a Republican, Senator Michael Balboni, as his top homeland security aide is an example of the kind of bipartisanship it’s nice to see in Albany. Sure, Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, wins by removing a Republican incumbent from the Senate, where the Republicans would have held only a narrow 34 to 28 majority even before Mr. Balboni’s departure. But by choosing a Republican from Long Island to serve in an important post in a new administration, Mr. Spitzer signals that he will reach across party lines and serve as governor of all New Yorkers. It is a move reminiscent of President Clinton’s choice of Senator Cohen, a Republican, as defense secretary, or of President Bush’s choice of Norman Mineta, a Democrat, as secretary of transportation.

Unfortunately for New York taxpayers, there is another kind of bipartisanship afoot in Albany, of a less healthy variety. It dawned on us as we read a New York Times editorial about the federal investigation of the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, a Republican. The Times wrote of the friendship and business relationship between Mr. Bruno and Jared Abbruzzese. “Mr. Abbruzzese has also invested in a group called Empire Racing Associates, one of three operations competing to run the state’s lucrative horse racing franchise. In an earlier round, Empire came in second, but Mr. Bruno told reporters in Albany last week that he thinks all the contenders should be given another chance when the new governor comes into office,” the Times wrote. “Meanwhile, the state lobbying commission is investigating Mr. Bruno’s trips on Mr. Abbruzzese’s airplane.”

Now, the Times didn’t mention it, but there’s a fact pattern that dawned on us as familiar: A top New York politician being investigated by the lobbying commission for accepting trips on an airplane from a businessman who wants the state’s lucrative gambling business. It turns out that, as our Jacob Gershman documented at the time, Mr. Spitzer also took plane rides — for which his campaign paid a reimbursement — from a gambling figure who wanted the state’s business. In Mr. Spitzer’s case, it wasn’t from Mr. Abbruzzese of Empire Racing Associates but from Richard Fields of Excelsior Racing Associates. Mr. Spitzer eventually said he’d stop flying that way, and, unlike Mr. Bruno, Mr. Spitzer has not announced he is under federal investigation. Yesterday, Empire announced that Mr. Abbruzzese had sold his interest in Empire back to the company.

By our lights, the best move for the state in respect of Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga is not to rent them out but to completely privatize them by selling them outright. In the absence of that, we can look forward to more bipartisanship of the sort now on display. The Excelsior team that flew Mr. Spitzer around includes the Rev. Floyd Flake, who is a former Democratic congressman from Queens, as well as William Mulrow, a former Democratic candidate for comptroller who has also been mentioned as a possible successor to Alan Hevesi. It also includes the Tishman Speyer real estate company and the Steinbrenner family that owns the New YorkYankees. The Empire team with connections to Mr. Bruno includes the former governor of New York, Hugh Carey, a Democrat, and a former Democratic candidate for attorney general, Denise O’Donnell. A third bidder for the racing franchise is reportedly the current franchise holder, the New York Racing Association, which was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2003. The indictment was deferred and then dropped after NYRA agreed to clean up its act.

To sort this out last year, Governor Pataki, Mr. Bruno, and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, each appointed three members to an Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Racing. The committee decided that, in choosing among the bidders, “integrity” should count for 20% of the decision. How’s that for Albany standards? It will be interesting to see if Mr. Spitzer changes anything or if the way to win a contract worth billions of dollars in Albany is going to be taking a politician, Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter — and the taxpayers — for a ride.