There are countless politicians running for statewide office next year, given the looming vacancies for governor and attorney general plus the hail Mary pass to take down Senator Clinton. They’re familiar faces who’ve been making the fundraising and networking rounds here for quite a while, with one exception: William Weld.

This week I was face to face for the first time with the emerging darling of New York’s Republican party. While he could surely pose a threat in the governor’s race to Eliot Spitzer, the likely Democratic nominee, the former Massachusetts governor must overcome some significant obstacles in his effort to become the first governor to serve two states.

After spending a half hour with Mr. Weld the other day, his two biggest weaknesses became clear: Gay marriage and Decker College.

Gay marriage is an issue because no Republican has won statewide office in more than 30 years without help from the Conservative Party, and even winking at gay marriage is a Conservative deal-breaker. Mr. Weld’s position on the issue has been inconsistent.

Mr. Weld appointed the Massachusetts Supreme Court justices who approved gay marriage, and was then part of the wedding party at a same-sex ceremony when his former college roommate got married to a Weld policy adviser. Conservative Party types don’t like that. Last year, he told a group of gay Republicans that same-sex marriage “is the conservative point of view.”

But he told me this week that gay rights advocates should give up for now because, “I don’t think that society is ready for it at this point.” While Mr. Weld vows to veto any law approving same-sex nuptials, he concedes this current opposition is “a personal judgment colored by some political realities.”

Conservatives want the bottom line – whether Mr. Weld thinks gay marriage is a good idea whose time hasn’t yet come or is a bad idea whose time should never come.

The chairman of New York’s Conservative Party, Michael Long, has been especially antagonistic towards Mr. Weld and mocks him as “getting bored easily” for quitting in the middle of his second term in Massachusetts. That’s not entirely fair, because Mr. Weld didn’t intend to abandon public service. He’d been nominated by President Clinton (once again, Conservative alarm bells go off) to become ambassador to Mexico – but the appointment was derailed in the Senate. The alleged boredom issue obviously pales in comparison to Conservatives’ concerns about gay marriage, and as Mr. Weld seeks to win them over he’ll need to keep finessing his contradictions on this topic.

Fortunately for Mr. Weld, gay marriage – which Mr. Spitzer supports – isn’t likely to be a key issue in the general election with most voters. But another issue that’s already haunting the candidate isn’t likely to go away.

Decker College is an obscure vocational school in Louisville that specializes in online technical classes. Mr. Weld led Decker until federal officials shut the college down two months ago amid questions about academic integrity and financial aid fraud. Mr. Weld was the acting chief executive in 2003 and 2004, after buying an interest in the privately run college, and earlier this year he moved to Kentucky as the $700,000-a-year permanent CEO.

Mr. Weld is not a target of the criminal investigation. He defends the school’s academic programs, and says he’s still proud of Decker’s efforts to help Latino and black blue-collar workers gain extra training without leaving the workforce. But words like “fraud” don’t sit well with voters, and Mr. Spitzer’s camp will surely press questions about what Mr. Weld knew and should have known.

A new poll shows Mr. Spitzer’s popularity at record heights, and the attorney general is raking in campaign cash.

But he’ll probably face a primary challenge from Thomas Suozzi, the Nassau County executive. That should help Mr. Weld, whose chances improve substantially if Mr. Spitzer is roughed up a bit before the fall.

Mr. Spitzer has cultivated a national reputation by tackling some of the nation’s most influential investment banks and insurance companies, but Mr. Weld says the attorney general isn’t so tough after all.

“Real prosecutors try their cases,” said Mr. Weld, accusing Mr. Spitzer of picking on rich companies that quickly cave in and settle cases simply because their stock prices might drop during drawn-out legal disputes. Mr. Weld challenged Mr. Spitzer to put corrupt executives in jail instead of letting them wiggle out of trouble by having their companies pony up big monetary settlements.

Mr. Weld also questioned the civil case over Richard Grasso’s $187 million payout from the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Spitzer is suing Mr. Grasso, the former exchange president, and Kenneth Langone, a former director of the exchange, claiming the excessive compensation violates the state’s non-profit statutes. But Mr. Weld accused Mr. Spitzer of making “a political call” by leaving Carl McCall, the former head of the exchange’s compensation committee, out of the case. Mr. McCall is a former state comptroller who was the Democratic nominee for governor and has long supported Mr. Spitzer.

Mr. Weld has considerable credibility on legal matters. He was U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts – recommended by Rudolph Giuliani, who was then the no. 3 official at the Department of Justice running the Criminal Division. When Mr. Giuliani traded that job in to become the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, he picked Mr. Weld to take his spot at main Justice in Washington.

Mr. Weld is aided by the most influential fundraiser in the state, Cathy Blaney. His message of cutting taxes while preserving personal rights, a familiar New York blend of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, has a track record of statewide success.

Dismantling Mr. Spitzer’s sterling reputation will be difficult, but Mr. Weld is determined to show New York voters there’s another tough prosecutor in town. Think of this election as a trial, with an over-sized jury rendering a verdict on Election Day.

Mr. Goldin is a host of NY1’s “Road to City Hall,” which airs weeknights at 7 and 10:30 p.m.