Spitz Sanitizes Grand Central Gov. Show

Photo: Andrea Renault/Globe Photos

Are Eliot Spitzer’s image vetters vetting history? “Making of a Governor,” an exhibition currently at Grand Central, is a hagiographic photographic chronicle of his run, accompanied by carefully selected items from his predecessors’ campaigns. “They wanted everything happy, nothing negative,” says Jordan Wright, who runs Soho’s Museum of Democracy, a collection of 1.25 million political mementos. Wright’s upset because two controversial Nelson Rockefeller items he chose didn’t make it. “You can’t just clean up history because you have a new governor,” he says. “History is what it is.” Exhibit designer Seth Cameron says the Spitzer staff didn’t veto the Rockefeller items, but that they did nix a pro–Carl McCall button that read ANDREW YOU’RE NOT YOUR FATHER for being “a cheap shot” against new A.G. Andrew Cuomo, and a Mario Cuomo bumper sticker of the Three Stooges and Mario along with the caption FIND THE DUMMY. “Maybe it’s not the time to rub it in,” says Cameron. Plus Spitzer’s staff members asked him not to show so many pictures of them drinking, Cameron says.

Spitz Sanitizes Grand Central Gov. Show