(Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

As Eliot Spitzer shuttles between his Fifth Avenue apartment and his Columbia County farmhouse, one of his closest advisers has decided not to stay on with David Paterson. Christine Anderson, the governor’s spokeswoman, says she’s looking for another gig (“maybe corporate”) and will be out by mid-May. She’s had her hands full. “Two sex scandals in seven days and the vetting of a new governor— and after the year we’ve had,” she says. “People say, ‘You could teach an entire course on crisis management after what you’ve gone through.’ ” The lesson learned from the last few weeks: There’s only so much you can spin. “There were so many things that we didn’t see coming,” she says. “And the issue that took him down—how do you ever plan or manage something like that?” Is she mad at her old boss for his self-destructive recklessness? “I’m disappointed,” she says. Most disappointing: When the call-girl news broke, pollsters were midway through a canvass on the governor’s popularity, and his numbers were looking good. “We were starting to taste a comeback,” she says.

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: Apr 7, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!