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Spitzer defends upstate NY remarks

BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR. | Newsday Albany Bureau Chief

March 22, 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)

ALBANY - After comparing upstate New York's struggling economy to Appalachia, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sought to defend his remarks yesterday as his political adversaries attacked him for the comment.

"If some folks don't like the metaphor, so be it," Spitzer said. "The yawning gap in population loss, a continuing spiral of decline. These are realities."

On Sunday, during a campaign stop in Manhattan, Spitzer, who is the Democratic front-runner in the race for governor, told a group that if you drive from Schenectady to Niagara Falls, "you'll see an economy that's devastated. It looks like Appalachia."

Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who is seeking the GOP nomination, said, "Mr. Spitzer must know that his 'Appalachia' comment is at least borderline insulting."

Pataki said Spitzer's comments were "certainly insulting to the hardworking people who live in upstate New York."

But Spitzer found an ally in Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) who said, "You can make a case for whatever you want to call it, but the bottom line is there are needs up here."

Yesterday, Spitzer's campaign sent out U.S. Census data showing the 12-state Appalachian region grew 12 percent in population from 1990 to 2004 compared to 1 percent for upstate.

In Syracuse yesterday, Spitzer gave a major policy speech in which he called for more state development subsidies to help revitalize upstate cities.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who is also seeking the Democratic nod, said through his spokeswoman Kimberly Devlin that Spitzer's plan "doesn't focus on lowering New York's astronomically high property taxes."

Albany researcher Melissa Mansfield contributed to this story. It was also supplemented by wire reports.