For the last four years, Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney-general, has been the scourge of Wall Street, drawing headlines and angering many corporate leaders with his attacks on everything from accounting problems at insurer American International Group to stock analysts who slanted their reports to win investment banking business.

But now that he is running for governor of the Empire State in next week’s elections, most businesses are calculating that he would make a better ally than enemy. Not a single big business group has come out against Mr Spitzer, and some, especially in New York’s job-starved northern regions, have endorsed him.