365Gay Agenda Blog

Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer may resign as governor of New York after having been linked to a prostitution ring known as the Emperors Club VIP, operating out of a Washington, D.C. hotel. Spitzer, a Democrat elected in a landslide in 2006, now faces the possibility of the end of his political career. The New York Times broke the story earlier today on its website, and has since reported that Spitzer has been caught in a federal wiretap as Client #9 arranging to meet a high-priced sex worker.

At his mid-afternoon press conference, Spitzer implicitly acknowledged guilt and apologized to his family, saying that he had “acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family” — with First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer standing silent by his side — but the governor made no statement about his future and took no questions at the news conference. However, rumor has it that Spitzer has told his top aides that he will resign and that he will do so early this evening, possibly as early as 7 p.m.

Spitzer is the first sitting governor in the United States to support same-sex marriage, and he also publicly supports the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) — a transgender rights bill and an LGBT-inclusive safe schools bill currently pending in the state legislature. By any measure, Spitzer is the most LGBT-supportive governor that New York has ever had.

The scandal now swirling around Spitzer is reminding many people — especially in the LGBT community — of the fall of Jim McGreevey, who resigned as governor of New Jersey when he was implicated in a scandal involving his appointment to a high state position of a man with whom he was romantically linked. But the difference is that it was an open secret in political circles that McGreevey was gay, whereas Spitzer’s name has never been linked to prostitution — a criminal offense under New York state law, as is solicitation of prostitution.

If Spitzer resigns, his lieutenant governor would become governor. David Paterson is the first African American lieutenant governor in the state’s history and would become the first African American governor of New York and the first legally blind person to become the state’s chief executive as well, should Spitzer step down. Paterson is also extremely LGBT-supportive as well as having one of the most progressive records of any member of the state legislature.

The 58th governor of New York has had a tumultuous first term, and if he does resign, Eliot Spitzer will have had both the most meteoric rise to power and the most spectacular fall in the history of the politics of the Empire State. Newscasters and pundits are using terms such as ‘bombshell’ and ‘earthquake’ to describe this development; all too often, such terms are mere hyperbole, but in this case, they fall short, failing to capture the sense of shock in Albany and throughout the state at Spitzer’s apparent fall from power.