REFORM CRUSADER SPITZER LINKED TO PROSTITUTION RING

No, not as an entrepreneur, but a client who paid up to $4,300 a night for the privilege.

That's according to a report in the online N.Y. Times and legal document site The Smoking Gun.

In an announcement earlier today, he apologized to his family and vowed that government is larger than any single individual.

Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, pledged to bring ethics reform to Albany. Among his targets was label radio payola, Wall Street and, yep, prostitution. He is married with three children.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation called Emperor's Club in Washington, DC, with the governor believed to one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and a booking agent for the club.

Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his pursuit of record company-radio payola, which resulted in millions of dollars in settlement from the labels and broadcast chains, as well as Wall Street corruption. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

Spitzer’s reign has been marked by months of scandal, including his aides’ involvement in an effort to smear Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican.