(Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

While campaign officials tout Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson as an amusingly electable political Odd Couple, some Spitzer staffers are concerned that his running mate is too out-for-himself. Paterson’s been speaking contra-Spitzer on things like the death penalty (he’s against it) recently, while hiring the Washington-based, Clinton-friendly Glover Park Group to handle PR for his end of the ticket. On May 13, Paterson, the Democratic State Senate minority leader, also plans to open his own “Paterson 2006” campaign office in Harlem. “What the fuck? The lieutenant governor isn’t opening a Spitzer-Paterson office, but a Paterson office,” fumes one Spitzer confidant. “It’s really crappy that they would put Eliot in that position.” Paterson campaign manager Luther Smith noted that until after the primaries, the two campaigns are separate. Christine Anderson, Spitzer’s spokesperson, said the two agreed to disagree on some issues, and that Paterson’s new office and outspokenness were also jointly agreed upon.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: May 15, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!