Spitzer Plays Front-Runner Role Amid Aide’s Legal Mess
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Eliot Spitzer is denying that his campaign buried news of an alleged drunken driving accident involving his 31-year-old campaign manager, Ryan Toohey.
“There was no cover-up,” Mr. Spitzer, the Democratic candidate for governor, told reporters after a rally yesterday in Harlem. Mr. Toohey was arrested for driving while intoxicated after his car rolled over several times in an October 22 crash on the Niagara Thruway in the upstate town of Tonawanda. The charges were not made public until the weekend, and Mr. Spitzer said repeatedly yesterday that the campaign did not know about the arrest until Friday night.
Mr. Toohey was allegedly speeding when his car rear-ended another vehicle, spun out of control, and rolled over, the state police told the Buffalo News. Mr. Toohey’s father, Timothy Toohey, was arrested on drunken driving charges two hours later when he went to pick up his son at the police station.
The Spitzer campaign has not fired Mr. Toohey, but it has docked his pay, and he won’t be involved in the transition if Mr. Spitzer wins, according to published reports.
The campaign has “imposed appropriate sanctions” on Mr. Toohey, a spokeswoman, Christine Anderson, said. “DWI is a serious matter for which Ryan knows he must be held accountable.” Mr. Toohey did not return a call yesterday.
With a commanding lead in the polls heading into tomorrow’s election, Mr. Spitzer was relaxed and laughing as he campaigned in Washington Heights with the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, and other party leaders yesterday.
Mr. Spitzer urged supporters to take nothing for granted. “We’re ahead right now, but it won’t matter if we don’t finish the game,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo walked alongside the man he is gunning to succeed, amiably playing the role of a younger brother to Mr. Spitzer. “This guy Cuomo’s been following me all over. I think he wants my job,” Mr. Spitzer quipped to a few dozen supporters gathered in front of Marisco Centro restaurant on St. Nicholas Avenue. Earlier, Mr. Spitzer and his entourage stopped in at a shoe store, where the attorney general grabbed a small pair of pink and black Keds, turned to Mr. Cuomo, and said, “Andrew, these are for you.”
Joining Messrs. Spitzer and Cuomo were the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, state Senator David Paterson, the Manhattan president, Scott Stringer, the chairman of the state Democratic committee, Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell, Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, and a former Bronx president, Fernando Ferrer, who a year ago made the same march through Washington Heights as the Democratic candidate for mayor. This year, Mr. Ferrer, dressed in a beige sport coat, stood in the back, telling a reporter he was “merely a citizen soldier.”
The candidates made little mention of Alan Hevesi, the state comptroller who has been all but abandoned by leading Democrats as he faces possible removal by the state Senate for using a state driver to chauffeur his ailing wife for three-and-a-half years. A former federal prosecutor appointed by Governor Pataki to investigate the matter, David Kelley, found sufficient evidence to remove Mr. Hevesi, but he did not formally recommend it. Mr. Pataki said Mr. Kelley would continue interviewing witnesses.
Mr. Hevesi’s Republican opponent, Christopher Callaghan, spent yesterday campaigning upstate in Utica and Oneonta. Mr. Hevesi had no public schedule.
Mr. Spitzer’s opponent, John Faso, was also campaigning upstate, while Mr. Cuomo’s opponent, Jeanine Pirro, stumped in Long Island.