BALTIMORE (Map, News) - When news broke about once-squeaky-clean New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement in an international prostitution ring, Jim Pelura thought of his own family.

Like Spitzer, the chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, has three daughters, and when the call-girl sex scandal came to light on Monday, Pelura wondered how Spitzer would explain it to his children.

And like many, Pelura said he believed Spitzer’s resignation Wednesday was the right move.

“I think this is classic elected official arrogance,” Pelura said. “He bulldozed people, and that’s what makes this ironic. He put himself on such on a pedestal and now he’s down in the gutter with the best of them.”

Other top political leaders did not speak out about Spitzer’s resignation. Gov. Martin O’Malley declined comment on the issue.

On Monday, New York Lt. Gov. David Paterson will take over the Empire State’s top post. Paterson is legally blind, and his run with Spitzer in 2006 was linked to that of another legally blind lieutenant governor candidate, Robert Ehrlich running mate Kristen Cox.

In a 2006 interview with The Examiner, Paterson noted the importance of the selection of two disabled individuals who might one day have to serve as governor — as he now will.

“I think the idea of two blind people running for lieutenant governor from two different parties and being selected by their gubernatorial candidates as being the person who should take over is a statement that ... should be heard around the world,” Paterson said at the time.

Spitzer’s fall is just the latest in a long string of political scandals, both nationally and in Maryland. The scandal recalls, most famously, President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern.

But the allegations against Spitzer are particularly troubling, said Fred Alford, a professor at University of Maryland College Park’s Department of Government and Politics. He said Spitzer somehow separated an image as a crusading defender of what’s right from illegal behavior.

“I’m just as amazed as anyone else that someone could divide himself, and this way, and continue to function,” Alford said. “It’s a real puzzle whether this is a guy that thought he could get away with it, or if he’s wracked with guilt and compulsively driven for some reason we don’t know.”

Alford said it’s unclear whether Spitzer’s choices will ever be fully understood.

“He must be a troubled man,” he said. “It’s not about a human relationship, it’s about acting out. This is not an ordinary governor having an affair. This is deeper and darker and more split, and there’s something inside [him] that’s not nailed down.”

Staff Writer Jamie Malarkey contributed to this story

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com