For the legislators Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) attacked in the wake of their votes to select Tom DiNapoli as the new state comptroller, the last year has been one of mending relationships and repairing the damage the governor may have done with their constituents.

Spitzer went on something of a rampage in those first few weeks after the DiNapoli vote, calling the 150 members who chose DiNapoli political hacks who had blindly followed the lead of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan). Traveling the state to promote his first executive budget proposal, he lashed out at the local legislators.

One of those Spitzer put in his sights, Assembly Member George Latimer (D-Westchester), said that he got a steady stream of constituent attacks for months after the governor attacked him on a district visit.
“I had negative feedback for 90 days,” Latimer said. “Everyone who contacted me and said, ‘The governor’s right,’ and ‘You’re a hack,’ I said, ‘You don’t know my record.’”

A Democrat in a district with many Republican voters, Latimer was particularly sensitive to the attacks from the leader of his party, and in response, he waged a non-election year campaign to salvage his reputation in advance of the 2008 election. He increased his visibility district wide, held more town hall meetings and community visits to promote his record of government reform.

Latimer said he wanted to show that he could work with the governor’s office. The DiNapoli experience and its aftermath, he repeatedly stressed during these events, was a one-time issue.

He believes his efforts worked.

“I had one person who told me to resign come back to me and say, ‘You were right’,” Latimer said.

And Latimer said his relationship with the governor got better as the year progressed. He has been in frequent contact with chamber staffers about issues in his district, and had a meeting late last month to discuss state policy effecting incorporated villages.

Assembly Member William Magnarelli (D-Onondaga) may have felt the Spitzer attacks most acutely. The governor’s vituperative visit to his district came just as Magnarelli was launching his bid for county executive. With the 20-year Republican incumbent leaving office, county Democrats had been hopeful that Magnarelli could retake the office.

Magnarelli said he had to spend time throughout the county executive’s race explaining his vote for state comptroller, instead of explaining what he wanted to do in Onondaga County, with Spitzer’s attacks brought up by both his primary opponent and the Republican nominee, former Syracuse Council Member Joanie Mahoney. While Magnarelli narrowly won a primary that went to the paper ballots, Mahoney trounced him in the general election by 22 points.

Assembly Member Francine DelMonte (D-Niagara) narrowly escaped being attacked by the governor in her district— Spitzer had reportedly identified her as his next target, but a major snow storm prevented the governor from coming to Niagara Falls to deliver the rebuke.

Delmonte, who faced a tough primary challenge in 2006 and is a perennial target of Niagara County Republican Chairman Henry Wojtaszek, insisted that her relationship with Spitzer has always been good, and remains so.

But though the turmoil may be in the past, Latimer said he expects opponents to exhume Spitzer’s old comments in this November’s elections.

“People will bring up every bad thing they can Google up,” he said. “I will see a mailer on this. That’s the business.”