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Backwater State Capitals

Let's face it: a lot of state capitals are one horse towns. I know this because this magazine has sent me to such exciting power ...

Let's face it: a lot of state capitals are one horse towns. I know this because this magazine has sent me to such exciting power centers as Tallahassee, Little Rock, and most recently, Des Moines.

But no state capital has underwhelmed me more than Albany. You'd think that the capital of the boisterous "Empire" state, a big-spending place where policy-makers blow through $100 billion a year, might have more than one business-grade downtown hotel. Wrong! (It's the Crowne Plaza or bust -- the Ramada's a dump!) nys-capital-w-caption.JPG

Even NY State's big shots don't like hanging around Albany much, reports today's New York Times. Governor George Pataki, who prefers living in his own home in Garrison, NY to the governor's mansion, shows his face in Albany only once or twice a week, on average.

Other statewide officeholders do most of their business from area code 212, rather than 518.  Comptroller Alan Hevesi, for example, worked only 48 days in Albany last year, spending most of his time in Manhattan. Attorney General Elliot Spitzer spent only 32 days in Albany last year, preferring to stay as close to his Wall Street adversaries as possible.

Is this true in other states? Is Springfield to Chicago what Albany is to the Big Apple? Sacramento to L.A./San Francisco? Tallahassee to Disney World?

Christopher Swope was GOVERNING's executive editor.
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