It was mentioned that Spitzer resigned as Governor at his office in Manhattan. I would have thought his office is in Albany. Of couse, here in California our Governor does spend a lot of time down here in L.A. Arguably both of these officials could make the statement that most of their business compels them to be in NYC or LA respectively, but how often does this result in the Governor living in the state’s major city rather than in the capital, which often is not much more than a small town?
Is there a trend generally for state governors to practice their office from the major city of their states, instead of from the capital?
The Governor’s official residence and office is in Albany, however, Spitzer rose through to NYC-based Democratic party machine, and as state Attorney General, almost all his high profile cases focused on NYC issues (especially Wall Street and organized crime.) Because of that, he maintained an office in the city where he did a lot of work, and apparently he continued that practice into his governorship.
AFAIK the governor of New York has maintained a second office in New York City for a long time. It’s simply practical. The office used to be in the World Trade Center but we all know how that worked out.
Spitzer has a residence in NYC as well. It’s probably his primary residence.
New York is the power center of the universe. Governors will always base themselves there and spend as little time in Albany as [del]possible[/del] necessary.
A secondary question: who was the last NY governor that was from Upstate? Seems like ALL of them are from the NYC area, which is probably one reason why Upstate has festered for so long.
Seriously, has there been a governor from upstate (except for borderline cases of lieutenant governors becoming governor) in the last century? There were a couple in the 19th century.
I can guarantee that we will never see another one until New York City loses its power and upstate gains it.
Hey, if you consider “not New York City” to be “upstate” then sure. Gov. Pataki was mayor of Peekskill, then an Assemblyman from the 91st district (consisting of various chunks of Westchester and Putnam Counties, then later Westchester alone) then a state Senator from the same district, then Governor.
Mario Cuomo is about as NYC as you can get.
Hugh Carrey was part of the NYC establishment but served as a US representative for more than a decade before being elected Governor.
Malcolm Wilson practiced law in Westchester and was elected to the Assembly from that district. He succeeded Nelson Rockefeller (a definite NYCer) after the latter resigned.
Pataki is considered an upstater except for the fact that he was Al DaMato’s (head of the Long Island Republican machine) butt boy. When Pataki became governor he tried to move a lot of jobs from Albany to Poughkeepsie. That went over like a concrete cloud.
Nevertheless, Pataki was not part of the NYC power base.
Pataki is only considered an “upstater” by people in New York City. He was born in Westchester County, went to school in the Bronx, was Mayor of Peekskill, and represented Westchester County’s 91st District before being elected Governor.
Our esteemed governor, Ed Rendell, spends a fair amount of his time in Philadelphia, rather than Harrisburg, to the point where he’s occasionally called the “governor of Philadelphia.” To be fair, though, his wife is a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which is in Philadelphia, so he’d probably spend a lot of time in Philly anyway.
I can also understand his not wanting to live in Harrisburg.
The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, has his primary residence in Chicago but travels to Springfield for anything that requires his presence. He takes a lot of heat from Downstate residents and Illinois legislators for that. (Well, and for other things too, but that was probably one of the first controversies when he began his first term.)
Drumthwacket is just south of downtown Princeton and has been the governor’s mansion since 1982. Before that it was another, smaller house in Princeton. Not quite the same thing as the difference between Albany and NYC. Drumthwacket is something like a 20 minute car ride from the statehouse. Albany is something like 3 hours away from NYC.
The thing about New York, Illinois, and California is that all 3 have major cities and capital cities that are different. New Jersey doesn’t really belong, since it doesn’t have any major cities like NYC, LA, SF or Chicago.
I wonder if the governor of Pennsylvania has an office in Philadelphia.
See post 13 above. I don’t think there’s a formal office of the governor in Philadelphia, since the legislature and executive branch do their business in Harrisburg. (And when I say “do their business” I mean “in the same way a dog does his business”. ;))
I’m sure that if the governor came from Pittsburgh or State College or Erie, he’d spend a lot of time there.
