Spitzer Plans Bid For N.Y.

Eliot Spitzer, the Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate and two-term New York State attorney general who has made a name for himself fighting corporate crime, told reporters on Tuesday that he will run for governor of New York in 2006.

Spitzer’s early entrance into the race makes him the likely Democratic nominee in an election that could pit him against current New York governor George E. Pataki, who has yet to announce whether he will run.

In a statewide poll conducted by Zogby International last week, Spitzer was favored by 44 percent of likely voters, with hypothetical opponent Pataki getting 41 percent of the vote.

While Spitzer is a nationally known attorney general for his relentless prosecution of white-collar criminals, friends and former professors at the Law School remember him for his unfaltering work ethic, his sense of humor, and his quick wits.

Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, for whom Spitzer was a research assistant, remembered the 1984 graduate as a “brilliant student and a brilliant writer.”

“He was one of those really smart kids, and was very, very thoughtful and hardworking,” said Dershowitz. “He also had a very wry sense of humor—he was very funny.”

Friends from HLS remember him for his enthusiasm. Clifford M. Sloan ’79, now a vice president and general council of the Washington Post and Newsweek Interactive, said he pulled several all-nighters working with Spitzer for Dershowitz.

“He’s a ferociously hard worker,” said Sloan, who is also a Crimson editor, “but it comes from his enthusiasm for the work.”

But no one seems to have anticipated Spitzer’s entry into politics. “If you had asked me which of my law students was most likely to go into politics, I would never have put Eliot at the top of the list,” Dershowitz said. “He often took a back seat—he wasn’t one to take credit for things.”

Matthew D. Lerner, who was an editor of the Harvard Law Review with Spitzer, offered a similar portrait of his classmate.

“There are law students who are controversial during their time at the Law School who either say things or are confrontational, and I would never have described him that way,” he said.

But for Sptizer, it wasn’t all work.

Dershowitz once gave Spitzer and Sloan tickets to an NBA game at Boston Garden, where the Celtics happened to be hosting Spitzer’s hometown New York Knicks, Sloan recalled.

“Eliot kept standing up on his seat and cheering lustfully for the Knicks, and as people around us were getting more and more incensed, Eliot got more and more enthusiastic in cheering,” Sloan said. At one point, threatened to report Spitzer’s Knicks allegiance to Dershowitz—but Spitzer cheered on.

Spitzer graduated from Princeton before coming to Harvard, where he met his wife, Silda. After graduation, he spent six years as an Assistant District Attorney in New York before a brief stint in the private sector. After losing an election in 1994, Spitzer returned to public life four years later, when he was elected New York attorney general by a narrow margin.

Spitzer declined to comment for this story, but he has said that his decision to run for governor comes at a time of much-needed reform for the state.

“I bring people together whether they like it or not and we tackle complex problems—not with band-aid solutions, but with major reform and real change,” he said.

Sloan said that while Spitzer didn’t wear a political future on his sleeve, a public-policy career was clearly in his cards.

“I think it was always obvious that Eliot would be involved in public issues and make a serious contribution to pressing public matters,” he said.