We will have to wait and see what Spitzer will do, he is so silent on issues.

Eliot pick a warning for union

Local 1199’s clout may be on wane

How to square Eliot Spitzer’s support for the rise of a new Senate minority leader, Malcolm Smith, with his dictum that “on day one, everything changes” in Albany?

One possibility: The choice is a defeat for the powerful health-care workers’ union Local 1199, and sends a message that the union will carry reduced influence under Spitzer.

Smith, a well-liked insider from southeast Queens, is hardly a symbol of change. He has long embodied the easygoing, compromising politics of the state Senate, running on the Republican line and backing a GOP redistricting plan.

He hasn’t been associated with reform issues; indeed, his core supporters include the one state senator currently under indictment, Efrain Gonzalez of the Bronx. He’s also more conservative than Spitzer on abortion rights and gay rights.

But Spitzer, the most powerful Democrat in the state, spoke to Queens County Democratic leader Joseph Crowley hours before he threw his support behind Smith, and raised no barriers to the pick. Spitzer’s running mate, state Sen. David Paterson, had staff members and allies openly backing Smith.

Smith’s win sends a message that Local 1199, which supported Smith rival Eric Schneiderman, may be losing the power it drew from deal-making with Albany’s Republican leadership. The union’s defeat comes as Spitzer promises health-care reform and hospital closings likely to cut against the union’s interests.