ALBANY, Feb. 7 — State lawmakers rebuffed Gov. Spitzer on Wednesday by choosing one of their own as the next state comptroller, reneging on a deal they made with the governor to choose from candidates deemed qualified by an outside panel.
Their selection of Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli of Nassau County to a post that monitors the state’s finances and oversees its $145.7 billion pension fund was a stinging rebuke to the new governor, who portrayed the vote as a crucial test of his efforts to reform Albany. Mr. Spitzer had wanted a candidate from outside the Legislature who had financial expertise to replace Alan G. Hevesi, who resigned in a scandal.
But the Legislature, which grew used to bucking the governor during the Pataki administration, showed it was more than willing to do so again despite Mr. Spitzer’s landslide victory in November.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat like the governor, decided to ignore the agreed-upon selection process after the screening panel failed to recommend any lawmakers for the post. He and Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, threw their support behind Mr. DiNapoli, a Democrat.
Governor Spitzer, facing his first serious political defeat as governor, bristled at what he called the “stunning lack of integrity” of the legislative leaders and charged that they had let “politics and cronyism” triumph over sound judgment.
“We have just witnessed an insider’s game of self-dealing that unfortunately confirms every New Yorker’s worst fears and image of all that goes on in the Legislature of this state,” Mr. Spitzer said at a news conference shortly after the full Legislature voted following a private meeting among Assembly Democrats that selected Mr. DiNapoli.
“When all was said and done, the question legislators asked was not who was best qualified among the 19 million New Yorkers for this job, but rather, who among us will receive as a virtual gift this job that we control,” Mr. Spitzer said. “Nothing could be more fundamentally wrong, especially when dealing with the question of who will make, as sole trustee, the investment decisions relating to the $145 billion pension fund of the State of New York, the retirement money of millions of New Yorkers.”
Mr. DiNapoli, 52, seemed somewhat taken aback by the controversy. “I’m humbled, obviously,” he said in an interview.
“To have this level of confidence expressed gives me a real sense of the great responsibility that I’m undertaking and my obligation not to let my colleagues and the people of this state down,” he said.
It fell to lawmakers to choose a new comptroller after Mr. Hevesi, the elected comptroller, agreed late last year to resign after pleading guilty to a felony for using a state worker as a personal assistant for his wife. He had just been re-elected to a four-year term. There is no provision in New York for a special election to replace a comptroller who resigns; state law calls for a replacement to be chosen by a joint session of the Legislature. That gave Assembly Democrats, with by far the largest bloc of votes in the Legislature, control over the choice.
Still, last month the legislative leaders held a news conference with Mr. Spitzer to announce that they had agreed on a public selection process: a trio of former comptrollers would screen applicants, determine who was qualified and forward to lawmakers a list of the top candidates from whom to choose. But when the panel forwarded only three names — and none were those of the five lawmakers, including Mr. DiNapoli, who had sought the post — the Assembly was infuriated.
Assembly Democrats then decided to go back on the deal with Mr. Spitzer and the party’s bosses got involved, prompting the private decision by party members to select Mr. DiNapoli. “I think the members thought he was the most qualified member, and the most qualified candidate, and they chose to nominate him,” Mr. Silver said after the vote.
Mr. Bruno proclaimed his support of Mr. DiNapoli, who won the respect of many Republican senators by working with them several years ago on a legislative package to bail Nassau County out of its fiscal straits.
But some lawmakers were troubled by the process. The Senate Democrats decided to nominate Martha E. Stark, New York City’s finance commissioner, who was one of the three candidates deemed most qualified by the outside screening panel. At a vote of the whole Legislature that lasted for more than two hours, Ms. Stark picked up support from Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans, the two largely powerless legislative minorities.
Mr. DiNapoli won the final tally, 150 to 56; 107 votes were needed to win.
Both sides spoke passionately as they took the vote. Greg Ball, a rookie Republican assemblyman representing parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties, called it a “sad day for New York State.”
“The process has been broken, the public trust has been violated,” he said before voting for Ms. Stark. When he declared that “this is the most dysfunctional legislature in the United States of America,” he was drowned out by boos.
“Mr. Speaker, will you please take control?” he asked Mr. Silver.
Mr. Silver replied frostily, “So, Mr. Ball, how do you vote?”
He voted for Ms. Stark.
Other Assembly members said that they were merely exercising their right to pick whom they wanted. John J. McEneny, an Albany Democrat, said there was a reason that the Legislature was given the right to select a replacement for comptrollers who resign. “One of the main functions that Tom DiNapoli will take over will be the governor’s auditor,” he said, explaining the need for independence.
When it was over, Mr. Spitzer let it be known that he was willing to campaign against incumbents of both parties in the future if he felt that more reform-minded candidates were available. And he said that while he hoped Mr. DiNapoli would prove to be a good comptroller, he expressed doubts that he was the best qualified for the post.
Mr. Spitzer said that in recent days he had been asking lawmakers this question: “If Candidate X — take Tom — were approaching you and saying, ‘You know what? I’ve never done this before. Never invested a penny. Never made an asset allocation decision. Don’t know a swap from a derivative. But I’m setting up a money management firm tomorrow. I want your pension money to be my first investment. Will you give me your pension to start with?’
“Nobody said they would,” he said. “Nobody. That, to me, is dispositive. They wouldn’t do it with their money. But they’ll do it with the public’s money.”
Mr. DiNapoli, who was sworn in after the vote, said he had had a cordial conversation with Mr. Spitzer. “In terms of this issue of what the process was and what was good or bad about it, that’s going to be something for the historians to write about,” he said. “The process is now concluded, and we need to move forward. And there’s an awful lot of work to do.”
