By Heather Grossmann and Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
The decade may have changed the world forever, thanks to terrorism and technology, but it was the same old tricks for many misbehaving politicians. DNAinfo ranked the political stars of the naughty aughties.
1. Eliot Spitzer
The law-and-order governor, a former attorney general, started his term known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street.” He ended it as "Client 9" when it was revealed he liked paying for sex—a lot of it. His weakness for expensive hookers, along with intimate details of his socks-wearing sex life, was exposed in a federal investigation of a $1,000-an-hour prostitution ring. He resigned after serving barely more than a year in office.
2. Bernard Kerik
Kerik, who led the NYPD through 9/11, still faces federal corruption charges over allegations he let a mob-linked construction company do work on his house. An investigation into Kerik revealed he'd kept a Ground Zero apartment for trysts with his publisher Judith Regan and lied to the White House about his improprieties when he was under consideration to head the Department of Homeland Security. He’s the first NYPD commissioner to go to jail.
3. Rudy Giuliani
The man known as “America’s mayor” never got charged with doing anything illegal, but he did refer Bernard Kerik (see above) to President George W. Bush as a candidate to run the Department of Homeland Security. Years earlier, the details of his personal life were daily fodder for the tabloids after he broke up with his wife of 16 years at a press conference, in which he said he’d be spending more time with his “good friend,” Judith Nathan. Giuliani was forced to move out of Gracie Mansion as his divorce battle raged in the courts and Nathan was banned by a judge from visiting him there. In 2003, Giuliani married Nathan on the lawn of Gracie Mansion.
4. Hiram Monseratte
The state senator and former police officer was convicted of slashing his girlfriend with a piece of glass, which required her getting 40 stitches. He was caught on video dragging her through his apartment building, but received just three years probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault. He remains in office.
5. Alan Hevesi
As state comptroller and guardian of the state budget, Hevesi used a state worker to chauffeur his wife and do chores around their house. Three years after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the government and stepped down, he remains embroiled in a gifts-for-contracts scandal involving the state pension fund.
6. Vito Fossella Jr.
The Staten Island congressman pulled out of his 2008 re-election race after he was arrested for drunken driving. It wasn't the criminal charge that ruined his political career, but revelations that he had a secret second family he was keeping in the D.C. suburbs. He spent a couple weekends in jail. Rumors of a comeback have intensified since he spoke at a recent health-care forum.
7. Joe Bruno
As majority leader of the state Senate, Bruno ruled the Senate for nearly fourteen years with an iron fist — and, it turned out, made good money doing it. A jury convicted him of using his position to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from businessmen who did work for the government. Now retired, he faces a long prison sentence.
8. Miguel Martinez
A three-term Washington Heights councilman, Martinez started stealing from the city as soon as he got into office. He admitted to looting more than $100,000 that was supposed to go to local non-profits, and is serving a five-year jail sentence.
9. David Paterson
Immediately after replacing Eliot Spitzer in the governor’s office, Paterson admitted having extramarital affairs and repaid his campaign for unexplained hotel bills in Manhattan. Then, he admitted using marijuana and cocaine a few times when he was in his 20s. Then, his staff confirmed that he’d traveled with an ex-lover to campaign for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa and South Carolina. The drugs and affairs didn't ruin Paterson's approval ratings. They began to tank after botching the nomination of Caroline Kennedy to the Senate. He’s been trying to regain his numbers ever since.
10. Charles Rangel
The Harlem congressman, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has spent more than a year under investigation by a House ethics panel. He’s suspected of improperly controlling rent-stabilized apartments in a local apartment building, failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets, and of using his office to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York. Rangel had denied the allegations.
