New Yorkers Say Spitzer Should Resign Over Call-Girl Scandal, Poll Finds; Governor Remains Mum

A poll released late Tuesday found that 70 percent of New Yorkers think Spitzer should resign, while 66 percent believe he should be impeached and removed from office if he doesn't.

"It's a big thumbs down," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. "It points to just how politically untenable his position is right now."

The poll comes a day after allegations that Spitzer hired a high-priced call girl, vaporizing his straight-arrow persona. Investigators said Tuesday he was a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars.

While Spitzer and his family remained huddled in their Manhattan apartment, insiders said the governor was trying to decide how to proceed. Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him.

The scandal erupted Monday when allegations surfaced that Spitzer, a 48-year-old married man with three teenage daughters, spent thousands of dollars on a call girl named Kristen at a swanky Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.

The case started when banks noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, leading public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

A law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the call-girl service Emperors Club VIP. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80,000. It was not clear over what period of time that was spent.

Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the Washington tryst, Spitzer used two rooms at the Mayflower Hotel _ one for himself, the other for the prostitute. Sometime around 10 p.m., Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to her room, the official said.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

According to an affidavit, a federal judge approved wiretaps on the escort service's telephone in January and February. FBI agents in Washington had the Mayflower under surveillance when Spitzer was in town, a senior law enforcement official told the AP.

In the court papers, an Emperors Club employee was quoted as telling Kristen that Client 9 _ identified as Spitzer, according to investigators _ might ask to do things "you might not think were safe," and Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that."

A law enforcement official said Tuesday the discussion had to do with Spitzer's preference not to wear a condom.

Meanwhile, Albany insiders said the governor was still weighing his options, including quitting immediately or waiting to use resignation as a bargaining chip with federal prosecutors to avoid indictment.

Democrats privately floated another option, telling the AP that Spitzer was considering what was almost unthinkable immediately after Monday's bombshell apology: hanging on.

"If the public is fine, he'll stay," said a Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The poll indicated dissension among voters. Spitzer's approval rating was 30 percent, down from 35 percent in January. In November 2006, he won office with a historic 69 percent of the vote.

Even if Spitzer resigns, 49 percent of New Yorkers said he should face criminal charges.

The telephone poll conducted Tuesday surveyed 624 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Spitzer has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case. Michele Hirshman, Spitzer's former deputy attorney general and now a member of a high-powered New York law firm, has been retained to represent the governor.

In Albany, legislative leaders said Democratic Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who would become governor if Spitzer resigned, was talking to them about a possible transition. Paterson's office wouldn't confirm the conversations.

Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco warned that if Spitzer did not resign within 48 hours, he would call for impeachment. But any impeachment would face a difficult road in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, where articles of impeachment would require a majority vote to go to a trial. A trial would be decided by a combined vote of the full Senate, which has a slim GOP majority, and the Court of Appeals.

Privately, several Democrats in both the Legislature and in the administration said resignation appeared inevitable. "He's weighing the rest of his life," one Democratic official said sadly.

Late Tuesday, freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand became the first Democratic member of New York's congressional delegation to mention resignation. "This is very grave and sad news," she said. "If these serious allegations are true, the governor will have no choice but to resign."

But more than a day after the scandal broke, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other senior Democrats in the delegation had yet to call on Spitzer to quit.

On Wall Street, where Spitzer built his reputation as a crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation, cheers and laughter erupted Monday from the trading floor when news broke of his potential ruin.

"The irony and the hypocrisy is almost too good to be true," said Bryn Dolan, a fundraiser who works with many Wall Street employees. "If he had any shame, he would've already resigned."

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Associated Press writers Valerie Bauman and Michael Virtanen in Albany, and Vinnee Tong in New York contributed to this report.

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