Reply #6: NY's new governor promises reforms

[Judi Lynn]

Jan. 1, 2007, 3:41PM
NY's new governor promises reforms
By MARC HUMBERT Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — Democrat Eliot Spitzer, who built an international reputation fighting corruption on Wall Street, took office as New York's governor Monday, calling for an end to "the politics of cynicism and division" and signing a series of ethics measures.

Spitzer said frequent deadlocks between Republican Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature thwarted school improvements, ethics reforms, efforts to cut the nation's highest taxes and attempts to revive the state's economy.

"New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by," Spitzer said in his inaugural address. "Today is the day when all of that changes _ when we stop standing still and start moving forward once more."

Spitzer, New York's two-term attorney general, was nicknamed "the sheriff of Wall Street" for his high-profile investigations of corporate corruption.

He won the governorship on Nov. 7 with a landslide victory over former state Assembly Republican Minority Leader John Faso. Pataki, who served 12 years, did not seek re-election and is eyeing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4437808.html