Governor Spitzer faced an onslaught of anger and disgust this week at news of his alleged links to a high-priced prostitution ring, with members of his own party distancing themselves from him and reporters searching mostly in vain for an empathetic point of view among pundits and other New Yorkers.

But he wasn’t without supporters.

Late last night, a Save Spitzer campaign went live on the Internet with a petition that gathered more than 1,000 signatures by morning. The petition was launched by Bob Fertik, president of the Web site democrats.com, which bills itself as a forum for “aggressive progressives”

“Considering that it was 11 last night, word got around fast,” Mr. Fertik said in a telephone interview this morning from his Jackson Heights home, where he runs the Web site. “Overnight, that’s pretty good.”

The petition was written as a letter addressed to Governor Spitzer, and urged him in its first sentence: “Don’t let the Republicans and the rightwing media drive you out of office!”

The letter went on to suggest that Mr. Spitzer had been targeted in a “naked partisan Republican assault.” It also suggested that the investigation into his finances, which yielded information that he was the client of a web-based prostitution service, could be attributed to the fact that he had “made a lot of powerful enemies” in his career as attorney general.

In that role, which launched him into the governor’s office, he took down some of the financial sector’s most powerful men, including the former chairman of the Stock Exchange.

“The whole investigation by the Bush Administration stinks to high heaven. This isn’t a case of ‘structuring’ or ‘money laundering.’ The FBI never investigates johns — so why are they investigating you?” the petition said. The answer, according to Mr. Fertik, is that President Bush and Karl Rove, the president’s former chief strategist, interfered.

In the interview, Mr. Fertik suggested that the push for Mr. Spitzer’s resignation was hypocritical since Republicans, Senator Craig of Idaho, who pled guilty in an airport bathroom sex sting, and Senator Vitter of Louisiana, who was connected to a brothel scandal in Washington D.C., have not resigned.

Mr. Fertik said he had sent the letter to the network of activists connected to the Web site. Although he said he could not release the identities of the people who signed the petition, he said about 90% of respondents were from New York State. A Marist poll released today showed that 20% of New Yorkers didn’t believe Mr. Spitzer should resign.

In the end, the petition didn’t convince its intended recipient. Mr. Spitzer announced his resignation this morning, almost exactly 12 hours after the petition was published.

Mr. Fertik, speaking before the announcement, suggested that if Mr. Spitzer did resign at 11:30 a.m., Messrs. Vitter and Craig “should be gone by 11:31.”