NY Post: Andrew Cuomo Has Most To Fear If Spitzer Is Elected

A Post analysis of what happens if Spitzer is elected:

Spitzer will take office owing nobody of consequence anything — which is another way of saying he’ll be free to settle old scores by the boatload.

And that he will do, with gusto, predict a half-dozen veteran Spitzer watchers — not one of them willing to publicly cross a man on the cusp of regaining real power, a man who long ago raised vendetta to an art form.

They expect him to be a particular vexation to Gov. Cuomo.

Cuomo succeeded Spitzer as state attorney general in 2007, when the latter became governor. Nobody thought Albany was going to be big enough for the two of them, and it wasn’t.

Spitzer, his lean frame wrapped around the soul of a wolverine, had bludgeoned his way to notoriety as attorney general. And that was the course he chose as governor.

It didn’t work. From day one, he was at war with the Legislature — discovering soon enough that the lawmakers weren’t as susceptible to bullying as the acutely publicity-averse folks who populate Wall Street.

They fought back — which in part caused Spitzer to deploy state troopers against then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. But Cuomo quite publicly called a halt to that embarrassment, accelerating a dizzying fall in the polls for Spitzer and in some ways greasing the skids for his eventual resignation.

The former governor has not forgotten that.

“Eliot has Andrew’s picture taped to his bathroom mirror,” says one Albany operator. “Every morning he stares at it and says, ‘Hello. My name is Eliot Spitzer. Prepare to die!’ ”

Now, it would seem that opportunities for revenge are scarce. Spitzer is seeking citywide office, after all, and that has nothing to do with Albany.

Except that it does. Or it can be construed to — and that’s an opening an accomplished opportunist like Spitzer would negotiate without difficulty.

“The first thing I will do is audit the MTA to ensure that your dollars are spent wisely and that the cost of commuting remains as low as possible,” Spitzer said last month.

Never mind that the MTA is a state agency, and thus none of the city comptroller’s business.

No standing? No problem.

“Everybody thinks the city runs the trains, or the subways anyway,” says a politically attuned city infrastructure expert. “Of course Eliot will have his auditors all over the Transit Authority, and if Cuomo says no, they’ll go right to court.”

And to the press-release printer, too, the point being to embarrass the governor and rebuild the Spitzer legend. Never mind that the effect will be to be erode public confidence in a vital utility, which actually works pretty well.

Such thuggery paid dividends for Spitzer when he used the Martin Act like a club on Wall Street — coercing surrenders left and right, but never achieving an actual courtroom win.

So look for Spitzer to take another whack at Wall Street — leveraging the comptroller’s position as a principal custodian of the city’s five public pension funds to vex old enemies and to make new ones.

Were Spitzer not a staunch charter school supporter, had he not hired Students First shills to work in his campaign, I would probably have supported his candidacy in the end for the very reasons that the Post gives for why they're scared of him - Spitzer would look to revenge himself on Andrew Cuomo and Wall Street for all his past humiliations.

I can't think of two more deserving entities of revenge than Andrew Cuomo and Wall Street.

Alas, Spitzer's charter school support precludes me from being able to support him.

I don't think he's going to win in any case.

As I wrote earlier today, I think Stringer will eke out a very tight win based on union support, political establishment support, and the GOTV efforts both bring to Stringer's side.

Spitzer does not have that kind of operation, so you have to subtract a few percentage points from his public polling, figuring that some of those people who say they support Spitzer when the pollsters call won't actually vote tomorrow.

Still, there's a little part of me that fantasizes about Spitzer getting elected and seeing him wreak havoc on Cuomo.

I bet Spitzer might even go after Cuomo's teacher evaluation system and school funding system.

You can bet he would go at him on campaign finance and the donations Cuomo laps up from all the corporate entities but keeps hidden.

Alas, Spitzer is uncontrollable - even to himself - so it's best if Stringer wins tomorrow on the backs of the unions and the political establishment and Spitzer goes back to cable TV.

But just for a moment think about what Andrew Cuomo's face will look like on Wednesday if Spitzer is comptroller.