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Spitzer unleashes criticism of Pataki

In Buffalo for state Democratic convention, he calls rebuilding of Ground Zero a failure

BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR | Newsday Albany Bureau Chief

May 30, 2006

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seen after a fundraiser at the Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury. (Newsday / Karen Wiles Stabile / February 15, 2006)

BUFFALO - As he rolled into this upstate city for the state Democratic convention, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer issued his harshest criticism yet of Gov. George Pataki, calling the agency leading the rebuilding of Ground Zero "an abject failure."

Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner in the governor's race, said yesterday he was disturbed by a new $1 billion estimate of the cost of building a memorial at the former World Trade Center site, and he charged that officials at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. had not adequately explained the reasons behind the growing costs.

Referring to Pataki's stewardship of the LMDC, Spitzer said, "There was a vacuum at the top and a complete absence of leadership." He also compared the rising costs to corporate malfeasance. "This was an Enron-style debacle," he said. "They have violated their duty to the public."

His comments brought a charge from the LMDC that Spitzer was motivated by bad blood between the attorney general and John Whitehead, outgoing chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

Responding to the attack, John Gallagher, the LMDC's communications director, said the attorney general has "an abject vendetta against the LMDC" and Whitehead. In December, Whitehead alleged that Spitzer threatened him after he wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal suggesting the attorney general had been overzealous when he targeted former American International Group chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg in an investigation.

"We would certainly welcome it if the attorney general chose to participate constructively in the rebuilding of lower Manhattan, which, during the past four and a half years, he's utterly failed to do," he said.

Spitzer's comments came as Democrats arrived in Buffalo for their nominating convention - which officially begins today - with a renewed sense of optimism about the strength of their party. Through tomorrow, they were expected to tap candidates for governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general, comptroller and lieutenant governor.

With Republicans split over the makeup of a ticket and Spitzer and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leading in the polls, Democratic officials and party activists predicted victory.

"New York is going to come back into the Democratic fold," said Legis. Roger Corbin (D-Westbury) as he arrived in Buffalo. "We've been shut out the last 12 years." And former Mayor David Dinkins predicted Democrats would sweep all statewide races. "The Republicans are going to get their comeuppance," he said.

The State Democratic Party chairman, Herman "Denny" Farrell, said Democrats are focused on expanding their base beyond the strongholds of New York City, Buffalo and more recently Long Island.

Spitzer was expected to easily win the party's nomination over Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, whose effort to challenge him has gained little traction. Suozzi planned to boycott the convention and instead hold a rally today.

The race likely to draw the most attention was the competition among the five Democrats vying to replace Spitzer. Yesterday, sources familiar with the race said Andrew Cuomo appeared to have more than half of the delegate vote, with former Public Advocate Mark Green working hard to reach the 25 percent needed to secure a place on the primary ballot.

Spitzer made his comments about Ground Zero's rebuilding minutes after he and his family arrived at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport for the start of a bus tour that will take him through several upstate cities, then to Nassau and Suffolk, with a final stop Friday in Manhattan.

The attorney general, who has usually been reserved in his evaluations of Pataki, seemed to throw off any rules of decorum he had previously held to by attacking the most visible emblem of Pataki's tenure.

Yesterday, Spitzer, his family and his running mate, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson (D-Manhattan), tour- ed Niagara Falls.

Staff writers Lauren Weber and James T. Madore contributed to this story.