Weld Launches Opening Barb Against Spitzer
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The former Massachusetts governor, William Weld, drew first blood yesterday against 2006 governor’s race front-runner Eliot Spitzer, claiming the Democrat’s public persona is based on the power of intimidation.
And Mr. Spitzer shot right back.
Mr. Spitzer “has a marvelous public persona right now, based 100% on terror power, the power of ruination,” said Mr. Weld, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in New York.
Mr. Weld’s comments came during a visit to Saratoga Race Course, where his fledgling candidacy received some support from the senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican. Mr. Bruno stopped short of endorsing Mr. Weld, who according to polls remains largely unknown to 84% of New Yorkers. But Mr. Weld gained the full endorsement of state GOP Party chairman Stephen Minarik.
A former federal prosecutor, Mr. Weld said he sought more “blood-and-guts prosecutions,” including organized-crime cases, than Mr. Spitzer has.
Mr. Spitzer has become a national figure for his white-collar prosecutions that forced reforms on Wall Street and in the securities and insurance industries. The investigations have resulted in more than $1 billion in fines, criminal pleas, and reforms to eliminate conflicts of interest that Mr. Spitzer argues cost individual investors and consumers. Most firms entered into settlements before the cases went to court.
“People like Eliot because he’s a fighter, not a quitter,” said Mr. Spitzer’s spokesman Darren Dopp. “If he thinks New Yorkers want a patsy for governor, he’s wrong.”
Mr. Dopp said Mr. Spitzer protected investors and pensioners in those cases. Mr. Spitzer has also prosecuted organized-crime cases as an assistant district attorney in New York City and with the state’s organized-crime task force. Mr. Weld, who resigned during his second term in Massachusetts when he was nominated to be an ambassador, also appeared to question the public benefit of Mr. Spitzer’s sanction against Wall Street firms, but said he would elaborate on that issue at a later date.
