Poll Gives Spitzer High Marks

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Most New York voters like the notion of Governor Spitzer as a self-described “steamroller” when it comes to reforming government, a poll reported Tuesday.But the state Legislature’s top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he has a less positive view of Democrat Spitzer. The GOP leader said Spitzer was “being a bully and being abusive and using foul language.”“That is inappropriate,” Mr. Bruno told a state Capitol news conference.“We don’t need a monologue with somebody running around having a tantrum,” Mr. Bruno added.Sixty-one percent of voters surveyed statewide by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said they thought it was a good thing when told that Mr. Spitzer had called himself a steamroller who would roll over his opposition in his battle to change state government.State Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco of Schenectady said recently that Spitzer made the comment to him in a heated telephone conversation. Spitzer did not deny that account.“Executive pugnacity gets high marks in all geographical areas,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Hamden, Conn.-based polling institute.The poll comes as the new governor continues his battle with the Legislature over its election last week of state Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli as state comptroller. In electing Mr. DiNapoli, lawmakers ignored the recommendations of a Spitzer-championed panel of former comptrollers – agreed to by legislative leaders – who had recommended choosing the new comptroller from a list of three candidates, none of them state lawmakers.Thirty-five percent of those polled said they felt lawmakers had broken their word by selecting one of their own to replace Democrat Alan Hevesi as comptroller while 18 percent said the choice of DiNapoli was a legitimate exercise of legislative power. Forty-eight percent of voters said they didn’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion.In fact, when voters were asked if they knew about the agreement between Mr. Spitzer and the legislative leaders about how to select a new comptroller, 62 percent said they weren’t aware of the deal.Quinnipiac’s telephone poll of 1,049 voters was conducted Feb. 6-11 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.Hevesi resigned from the comptroller’s job in December after pleading guilty to a felony for using state employees as drivers and companions for his wife.Mr. Spitzer has said Mr. DiNapoli is not qualified to be comptroller and legislative leaders showed a “stunning lack of integrity” in selecting him.Since the election of Mr. DiNapoli last week, Mr. Spitzer has been making stops across the state to promote his $120.6 billion state budget plan, and in the process has been attacking fellow Democrats who are members of the Assembly for backing Mr. DiNapoli.While state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has tried to calm the political waters, Mr. Bruno, who sided with Mr. Silver to elect Mr. DiNapoli as comptroller, has taken Spitzer to task for his harsh comments about lawmakers.“People who dictate, people who are tyrannical, they don’t get results,” Mr. Bruno said on Monday.On Tuesday, Mr. Bruno unveiled a proposal to amend the state constitution and state law to permit special statewide elections to fill vacancies for state comptroller or state attorney general. The power to fill those posts now rests with the Legislature.Mr. Bruno made it clear his plan was the result of the showdown between Mr. Spitzer and the Legislature and said that other things were going to change because of that as well.“I can tell you this now, I’m not going into a room to discuss anything behind closed doors,” Mr. Bruno said. “We’re going to have open public debate on everything from now on.”But while Mr. Bruno was talking tough, the 31-year veteran of the Senate also held out an olive branch of sorts and predicted that the governor would eventually come around because “he needs to get results.”“It’ll be like embracing. I hesitate to use the word `love,’ but this is the Valentine’s season,” Mr. Bruno said. “It is the time for us to love everyone.”“I may send roses,” the Senate leader added. Turning to an aide, he said, “John, order some roses for the governor and for Shelly.”Visiting a family in the Albany suburbs on Tuesday, Mr. Spitzer was asked about Bruno’s characterization of him as a bully. The governor seemed ready to call at least a temporary truce and refrained from attacking any specific legislators.“This is not personal with any of these folks,” he said. “This is about doing what is right for the public.”

Poll Gives Spitzer High Marks

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