Everyone knew this was coming, but today he made it official.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose investigations of white-collar crime have shaken the nation’s financial institutions, said Tuesday he will run for governor in 2006.
Spitzer has long been known to be interested in the job, but it was the first time the high-profile attorney general has said he will definitely run.
“The state is at a point of crisis,” the Democrat told The Associated Press. “We are bleeding jobs. We need reform in the process of government.”
Gov. George Pataki (R) hasn’t said whether he’d run for a fourth term in New York, but if he does, he’ll probably start off as a bit of an underdog. A Zogby poll last week surveyed the hypothetical match-up and Spitzer was up, 44-41.
We’ll all be hearing and reading a great deal about Spitzer through the course of the campaign, but to understand why he has so many people excited, and why he was even considered as a possible running mate for the Dems this year, I’d recommend this excellent profile on Spitzer that ran in Time a couple of years ago. The magazine labeled him “the people’s champion” with good cause.