Eliot Spitzer ran for New York governor last year promising to clean up the state’s notoriously dysfunctional capital in the same bare-knuckled way that he took on Wall Street banks as a crusading state attorney-general.

Riding on his reputation as “the Sheriff of Wall Street”, Mr Spitzer cruised to victory, winning almost 70 per cent of the vote – an overwhelming sign of how eager New Yorkers were for reform in their state government.