Shortly before he was elected New York’s governor last year, Eliot Spitzer made headlines by returning $124,445 worth of campaign contributions he had received since 2003 from lawyers associated with the then just-indicted Milberg Weiss law firm.

At the time, Spitzer’s spokesman claimed that he and his campaign strategists “held ourselves to a higher standard” regarding acceptance of contributions. The returned Milberg Weiss funds were hardly missed, however, as Spitzer raised more than $20 million in campaign cash on the way to a landslide victory last November running on a “Clean Up Albany” platform promising widespread reforms.