Hevesi's Poor Judgment

During his tenures as City Comptroller and currently in the same capacity for the state, Alan Hevesi has generally conducted himself as a model public servant, excelling at what he does and representing his office as that rare official who can speak in clean, intelligent paragraphs rather than sound bites.

Occasionally, though, he shows a dismaying lack of judgment, as when he tried earlier this year to compliment Sen. Charles Schumer's tenacity by making a wholly inappropriate joke about the Senator's willingness to shoot President Bush if it would accomplish his aims.

That judgment problem has cropped up again with the revelation that Mr. Hevesi has used one of his staffers to chauffeur his wife on a regular basis since he became State Comptroller in 2003, with a sharp increase during the past two years. It is no secret that Carol Hevesi has suffered from a variety of physical ailments, as well as from bouts of depression. Nonetheless, Mr. Hevesi should not have expected that her transportation would be handled at state expense. He was concerned enough about propriety to write the State Ethics Commission in May 2003 about the matter, but not sufficiently to act on its advice that he get an independent law-enforcement assessment as to whether there was a sufficient risk involved to warrant her having a state-paid driver.

Now that his re-election opponent, Republican challenger Christopher Callaghan, has brought the issue to light, Mr. Hevesi has apologized for what he described as "irresponsible" behavior and agreed to pay more than $82,000, which is what his office calculated was paid to the aide for driving when he should have been performing other duties.

We don't believe the ethical lapse is serious enough to warrant him resigning, as Republican gubernatorial nominee John Faso has urged, but it is likely to make his re-election race a lot closer. Another lapse like this one in the future is going to convince many people that Mr. Hevesi operates with too great a sense of entitlement to be the guardian of the public purse, no matter how competent he may be.