There was a Spitzer diary already, but it was just a cut and paste of the link in the intro (no body). So I will try and give a little bit more here.
I saw this article today on the Syracuse Post-Standard's website. There were a few key points that I wanted to highlight.
Eliot Spitzer, elected governor in a landslide after promising to reform state government, said Thursday he will set the tone by adhering to an unprecedented set of self-imposed reforms including limiting campaign contributions and taking no money for speeches.
Spitzer also will ban questions on political affiliation in hiring, initiate budget reforms and refuse to appear in state-paid TV commercials.
His first step will be to use the powers at his disposal as governor to try and reduce the influence of lobbyists in Albany and somewhat depoliticize hiring for the executive branch (I highly doubt that political patronage is going to die in a Spitzer administration). The idea here is to shame the legislature, especially the Republican Senate, into following his lead. There has been much talk over the years about restricting the access, influence, and power of lobbyists, but the "three men in a room" system has blocked reform quite effectively. Now that one of those men has changed and another (Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver) is facing pressure from his caucus for change, that leaves Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in the position of being the odd man out. The people of New York State have been seeking reform for the last few election cycles and with Spitzer's arrival on the scene and his support for positive action, I think a lot of voters will be able to focus their attention on Bruno's obstruction and the Republican's six seat advantage in the Senate (the Assembly is heavily Democratic). Either Bruno gets with the program or he'll be out within two years, rejected personally by his caucus or Senate Republicans by the voters.
I'm optimistic about Spitzer's reform stance because he's put people on his transition team who are firmly committed to good government and know how screwed up Albany is. Two transition team members quoted in the article are Michael Waldman and Blair Horner. Waldman helped write a report for the Brennen Center that was given a lot of attention in the 2004 campaign on Albany's failings. That election saw a narrowing of the Republican's Senate majority when several Democrats won on reformist messages. All of those new reform minded Senators were reelected (along with, unfortunately, all but one Republican as well). They all used Waldman's report to highlight the shortcomings of state government and now the author is helping form the new administration. Horner is from the New York Public Interest Research group and is often quoted in the state politics page of the Post Standard. NYPIRG was not part of the Fund (at least not in 2000 when I worked a summer for them) and not affilitated with the other state PIRGs. That means NYPIRG is only focused on New York and Horner is always a voice of reason when we see some of the screwed up nonsense that comes out of Albany. The fact that the governor elect has the lobbyist from a pulbic intrest organization on his transition team is a great signal to us who want substantial change in the state's business.
So it begins. After three terms of go along to get along Pataki we will finally have someone with some initiative in charge. Ole Georgie stuck around one term too many and has pretty much ruined the state wide GOP, here's hoping Eliot can take advantage of the situation and make his actions speak louder than his promising words.