Eliot Spitzer

Politician

• Born: June 10, 1959
• Place of Birth: Bronx, New York

LAWYER AND POLITICIAN

Spitzer rose from New York’s attorney general to its governor. His political career crashed when he was caught frequenting a call-girl ring known as the Emperors Club.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Crime; law

Early Life

Eliot Spitzer was born June 10, 1959, to an Austrian immigrant family. His father was a successful real estate developer, and his mother was a professor at Marymount Manhattan College. Eliot Spitzer’s Jewish ties stretched to both his maternal and his paternal grandparents, who were from Poland and Palestine, respectively, and he and his two siblings were raised in the Bronx in New York City. Spitzer’s family was not particularly religious, seldom observing official Jewish practices, and, although wealthy, the family was particular about teaching their children the importance of hard work and of physical labor. Spitzer and his brother attended the Horace Mann School, and his sister attended the all-girls Brearley School; both educational institutions are noted for their high academic standards and challenging curricula. Spitzer went on to a career in law, his brother became a neurosurgeon, and his sister became executive director of the District of Columbia Bar Foundation. Spitzer attended both Princeton (undergraduate) and Harvard (juris doctor) and met his first wife, Silda, while attending law school.

During his career in politics, Spitzer was praised for helping the “little guy,” with his efforts to clean up air pollution, stop Wall Street corruption, and help eradicate organized crime. Some attributed his concern for the less fortunate to his experiences working with migrant orchard pickers during the summer months of his college years.

Life’s Work

Upon graduation from Harvard, Spitzer had many opportunities. While attending Harvard, he had interned with the New York State attorney general’s antitrust division, and upon graduation he joined the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison to begin his career in law. Spitzer did not stay long at the firm; he left to pursue his interests in cases involving organized crime, much as he had done as an intern. At the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Spitzer became well known for being an integral part of the case that involved the arrests of and plea bargains for the Gambino crime family members, which netted a $12 million settlement. This success, along with his marriage to his college sweetheart in 1987, capped off a successful decade for Spitzer.

He served ably for six years in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, solidifying his reputation as a skilled and effective lawyer. Spitzer once again left public service to work for the firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom and Constantine and Partners. His success in antitrust and racketeering cases involving the Italian Mafia made Spitzer an attractive candidate for political office. In 1994, he ran for New York State attorney general. Although he had significant financial and political support from his family and the Democratic Party, Spitzer finished fourth out of four in the 1994 Democratic primary, losing to Karen Burstein. Burstein eventually lost to the Republican Dennis Vacco. The seat opened in 1998, and Spitzer ran again, emphasizing during the campaign his successes with the Manhattan attorney general’s office. He won the primary, and in one of the closest races in history for the position of New York State attorney general, Spitzer beat incumbent Vacco by less than six-tenths of a percentage point. The win became controversial, however, when allegations of unethical financial issues were leveled against the Spitzer campaign. Although no charges were ever filed, the rumors were damaging to Spitzer’s political reputation.

In 2002, Spitzer was up for reelection, and this time there was no close call. Despite the improprieties that surfaced, Spitzer was the overwhelming choice, winning more than 66 percent of the vote. His popularity was due in part to the hard line he had demonstrated on white-collar crime, consumer rights, and securities fraud. In 2002, he was responsible for forcing the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch to settle for one hundred million dollars in a case showing that the company’s e-mails misled customers on how to invest their money. Spitzer also was instrumental in cleaning up the criminal activity on Wall Street. He used often-ignored New York laws to subpoena financial records and witnesses, and he began investigating several companies for illegal activities within his jurisdiction, which included the largest market for stock trading known as Wall Street. The Republican Party called Spitzer a rogue, but the Democratic Party saw that his aggressive handling of wrongdoing by corporate leaders would appeal to voters. It was rumored that he was on John Kerry’s list as a vice presidential nominee in 2004.

In 2006, Spitzer ran for governor of New York, proclaiming his successes in cleaning up organized crime and halting wasteful spending. Spitzer won, and in January 2007, he became governor of New York. Soon there were allegations of favoritism, with the new governor supposedly pressuring others to appoint“Spitzer supporters” to high-ranking positions, and of broken promises, with Spitzer’s pledge to curtail wasteful spending drowned in deficits. Spitzer’s plans to allow illegal immigrants to obtain a driver’s license and Troopergate, in which Spitzer ordered the New York State police to follow a Republican state senator--using state time, money, and equipment--met with the public’s displeasure. After nine months as governor, his approval rating fell to 30 percent.

The final straw came in March 2008. Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap talking about using high-class prostitutes, possibly paying them with state money. It is estimated that Spitzer spent between $80,000 and $100,000 on call girls, at a rate of $1,000 an hour. Following the accusations, Spitzer resigned from office. An investigation concluded that there was no inappropriate spending of government money and no charges were filed. In the wake of the scandal, one of Spitzer’s call girls, Ashley Dupré, gained notoriety as a columnist for the New York Post on love and relationships.

Spitzer ran for New York City comptroller in 2013. He was defeated by Scott Stringer in the Democratic primary. His post-political work has included column writing, public speaking, television appearances, and serving on the board of directors of a financial tech startup, TipRanks. After his father's death in 2014, he took over the family's real estate business.

Spitzer was in the headlines again in 2017 when a Russian woman was accused of attempted extortion. Svetlana Travis Zakharova claimed she and Spitzer had an affair and that he had choked her in February 2016. He was not charged but later sued her for threatening to reveal their relationship if he did not pay her. She pleaded guilty to defrauding another man with similar threats and demands.

Spitzer and Roxana Girand planned to wed in 2020, but canceled the event due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In 2024, they revealed they had held a small, quite ceremony at their home in upstate New York in April 2020. Even many of their friends did not know about their nuptials.

Significance

Although Spitzer will likely be remembered for his call-girl controversy, it should be noted that he was responsible for breaking up one of the largest organized-crime families in the history of the United States. As New York State attorney general and governor, he made laws that helped to stop corruption on Wall Street and in corporations. Spitzer’s reputation will always be scarred by his inappropriate actions with prostitutes, but what should not be ignored was his willingness to fight for the lower and middle classes and his efforts to protect them from greedy corporate and investment forces.

Bibliography

Constantine, Lloyd. Journal of the Plague Year: An Insider’s Chronicle of Eliot Spitzer’s Short and Tragic Reign. New York: Kaplan, 2010. Print.

Elkind, Peter. Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. New York: Portfolio, 2010. Print.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, with Eliot Spitzer. Eliot Spitzer and the Prostitution Ring: The FBI Files. New York: Filiquarian, 2008. Print.

Laden, Noam. "Mazel Tov Mrs. Spitzer?" WABC Radio, 31 July 2024, wabcradio.com/2024/07/31/mazel-tov-mrs-spitzer/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Masters, Brooke A. Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer. New York: Holt, 2007. Print.

McKinley, James C. Jr. "Woman Accused of Blackmailing Eliot Spitzer Accepts Plea Deal." The New York Times, 2 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/nyregion/eliot-spitzer-blackmail-plea-deal.html. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Miller, Frederic, Agnes Vandome, and John McBrewster, eds. Eliot Spitzer. Mauritius: Alphascript, 2009. Print.

Spitzer, Eliot. Protecting Capitalism Case by Case. New York: Rosetta, 2013. Print.