Hornell mayor appears on CNN

Hornell Mayor Shawn Hogan was sitting in his office Tuesday when he got a phone call from a CNN producer.

Would he be interested in responding to questions about Gov. Eliot Spitzer for Anderson Cooper's 360 show? The show officials had seen some comments Hogan had made about Spitzer on the Internet, and thought he would add a more humanistic tone.

Hogan said 'sure' and they found a way to make it happen. Contact was made with Peish TV in Hornell, which recorded Hogan as he was asked questions via speakerphone by a show producer, and then the tape was driven to WXXI in Rochester for the clips to be uplinked to CNN. The mayor said this morning the video was uplinked to Atlanta, New York and Washington.

"I had no idea if it was going to make it on or not," Hogan said this morning. "They do a lot of filler for those shows."

Several of Hogan's comments did make it on the air, around an hour and a half into the show, which started at 10 p.m. He had two 30-second appearances in one of the numerous segments devoted to discussing Spitzer's high-priced prostitution predilection, and was identified as Hornell mayor and Spitzer's friend.

"I thought it was all right," Hogan said of his time on TV. "Obviously they asked me a lot more questions than they aired.

"I'm not normally up that late, but I managed to hang in there to see if we made it through to the air," he added. "It did, and I think my comments were no different than what I said to local media."

Shocked, and like he'd been punched in the stomach, was how Hogan responded to both CNN and local media questions on how he felt after revelations Spitzer had been linked to the high-end prostitution ring.

"I think the whole nation would never have predicted this to happen," he said. "What causes or leads someone with such high ideals and intellect, who has the world on a string, what pushes them to engage in that type of behavior?

"I don't think anyone has the answer to that question, but why do people jump off the Empire State Building with a parachute? I guess they're living on the edge, thrill seeking," Hogan added. "It's heartbreaking to see someone have so much promise, at 48 be the governor of New York and have a beautiful family and life. What makes people do this? I don't know."

One of the most interesting questions Hogan said he was asked was one that didn't make it on the air. He said the producer asked if Spitzer, at any time, ever discuss political sexual scandals with the Hornell mayor during the times they were together.

"No, he did not," Hogan said. "All my conversations were based on the needs of the community and upstate, and moving New York forward. Our conversations were always on the professional level.

"We were friends, but we didn't have that high school buddy-buddy type of relationship," he added. "It was very issue-oriented."

The Evening Tribune