Spitzer Poised To Step Back From Hevesi

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has lost confidence in Alan Hevesi and is poised to rescind his endorsement of the embattled state comptroller, a source close to Mr. Spitzer said yesterday.However, Mr. Spitzer, the Democratic nominee for governor and one of the state’s most popular politicians, is unlikely to call for his fellow party member’s resignation, fearing that such a move would backfire on the party by leading to the victory of Mr. Hevesi’s Republican opponent, J. Christopher Callaghan, the source said.“What would a resignation accomplish other than handing an election to Mr. Callaghan?” the source said.Mr. Spitzer’s support for the comptroller appears to be vanishing a day after the state ethics commission found reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Hevesi knowingly broke state law by having at least two employees chauffeur the comptroller’s frail wife.One of the employees, Nicholas Acquafredda, drove around Carol Hevesi on a full-time basis up until this summer, the commission said. It rejected Mr. Hevesi’s claim that his wife needed a driver for security reasons.The source said Democrats in Albany have been struggling to figure out how to deal with the scandal, which is overshadowing the party’s expected triumph in the November 7 general election. They have even brainstormed to find ways to remove Mr. Hevesi from the ballot, drawing the conclusion that it’s virtually impossible to do so.“Is there any possibility someone could replace Alan on the ballot?” the source asked.”The answer pretty clearly is no.”Mr. Hevesi, who was elected comptroller in 2002, could be removed from the ballot if he switches his official residence to an out-of-state address.“Nobody would envision going to Alan and saying, ‘Can you move?'” the source said.His name would also be eliminated if he dies or is nominated for a judgeship. Mr. Hevesi, 66, does not have a law degree.On Monday, after the release of the commission’s report, Mr. Spitzer said his office would be undertaking an investigation to find out how much more money Mr. Hevesi owed the state. The attorney general has recused himself from the probe, putting his first deputy attorney general, Michele Hirshman, in charge.After a whistle-blower in his office leaked information about Mrs. Hevesi’s taxpayer-funded driver, the comptroller in September reimbursed the state $82,688, an amount the commission said was too low.Mr. Spitzer’s Republican opponent in the governor’s race, John Faso, is accusing Mr. Spitzer and the Democrats of playing a “cynical game,” demanding that Mr. Spitzer call for Mr. Hevesi’s resignation.“Who cares about the endorsement?” he told The New York Sun. “The fact of the matter is we have a corrupt statewide elected official of Spitzer’s party, and Spitzer is hiding on this almost as much as Hevesi. … Does anyone doubt that if this were a corporate executive stealing from his company, Eliot would act so timidly?”Mr. Faso also demanded that Governor Pataki call on Mr. Hevesi to resign.A spokeswoman for the Spitzer campaign, Christine Anderson, said Mr. Spitzer has responded “quickly and decisively,” citing his office’s investigation into Mr. Hevesi’s alleged debt to the state.The source said Mr. Spitzer was wary of moving “precipitously” and wanted first to hear Mr. Hevesi defend himself against the charges made by the ethics commission.The comptroller is set to get the chance in a televised debate today against Mr. Callaghan, a former treasurer of Saratoga County who has used the scandal to rise from obscurity and pose a threat to Mr. Hevesi’s re-election bid.Mr. Hevesi was the only major statewide candidate to have refused to take part in a debate until yesterday, when he decided to do so. The one-hour debate, set for 7 p.m., is to be broadcast on NY1 cable news.His decision to debate was one of the sharpest indications that Mr. Hevesi plans to attempt to hang on to office at least until the election.If he resigns beforehand and then wins the election, he would have to again submit his resignation at the beginning of the year, when the electoral winners are sworn into office.Many in Albany expect Mr. Hevesi to remain in office until after the election to enable the Legislature, where Democrats outnumber Republicans, to elect a Democrat as a replacement.The commission has handed the case to the Legislature, which can censure, fine, or remove Mr. Hevesi from office through an impeachment proceeding. The chances of lawmakers convening a special session to hold an impeachment trial looked increasingly slim yesterday, with legislative leaders in both houses signaling their opposition to such a move.The Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, called on Mr. Hevesi to step down, but said the public would not benefit from a “dragged out, divisive” impeachment process.The Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said he had read the commission’s report and that his lawyers were reviewing the applicable statutes. He also said it would be impossible to conduct an impeachment trial before next month’s election.The outgoing governor of New York has literally kept his distance from the Hevesi scandal, traveling in Hungary this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the country’s anti-Communist revolution.A spokesman for the Pataki administration said on Monday that the governor’s office was reviewing the report and suggested that it would not likely take any action until the Albany County district attorney’s office completes its criminal investigation into Mr. Hevesi’s alleged misappropriation of state funds.Mr. Callaghan told the Sun that he would tell voters during the debate “that Mr. Hevesi’s ethical failings absolutely disqualify him for public office, particular this office.”Before taking office, Mr. Hevesi served two terms as comptroller of New York City and prior to that spent 22 years as a state assemblyman. His son, Andrew, is an assemblyman, and his brother, Dennis, is a veteran reporter at the New York Times.As comptroller, Mr. Hevesi is the state’s chief fiscal officer in charge of auditing government bodies and acting as the fiduciary for the $140 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund.As noted by the commission’s report, he is also expected to mange the state’s assets, issue reports on state finances, offer fiscal guidance to local governments, including New York City, review state contracts, payrolls, and payments, and maintain the state’s accounting system.In August 2005, Mr. Hevesi released an audit report that scolded the Central Islip school district for what he described as “excessive” spending on travel and shoddy record keeping. One expense that he said was questionable was “$6,900 in payments for mileage reimbursement that lacked detailed information to justify that travel was for school purposes.”“There was so little documentation that auditors could not determine whether expenses were legitimate or not and the Central Islip school board failed to meet its fiduciary responsibilities to taxpayers,” Mr. Hevesi said in a press release at the time.The executive director of the Citizens Union, Dick Dadey, said Mr. Hevesi’s actions “were so inconsistent with his fundamental responsibilities as comptroller.”Mr. Dadey’s 109-year-old watchdog organization yesterday called on Mr. Hevesi to resign.

Spitzer Poised To Step Back From Hevesi

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