The Great Spitzer Legacy
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- May
- 9
Here’s one way to use Spitzer’s legacy to your advantage.
Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, whose district runs through the Hudson Valley into the Albany area, is touting the fact that she was the first member of Congress to come out against former Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to provide drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants.
“Washington’s lack of response to immigration has left New York in a hole. Kirsten Gillibrand is working to lift us out,” the mailer says.
The mailing from Gillibrand, who is seeking a second term in November, was released today by her Republican opponent, Sandy Treadwell. Treadwell claims that Gillibrand has helped block measures to toughen immigration policies in the U.S.
Gillibrand did come out early against Spitzer’s drivers’ license plan, yet other Democrats in Congress soon followed and also led Hillary Clinton to waver over the issue during the early presidential debates last fall—the first crack in her campaign.
The pressure from Democrats for Spitzer to drop the plan ultimately led him to do so during a trip to Washington—no not that trip.
That infamous rendezvous to the Mayflower Hotel was a few months later, in February. Spitzer resigned in mid-March.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
