ALBANY — The name of former Gov. William Sulzer, who briefly ruled Albany more than a century ago, generally finds its way into conversations on two specific occasions.
One is whenever an incumbent governor is accused of some serious misdeed. Sulzer remains the only of New York's 56 governors to have ever been impeached. The story of his removal in 1913 has appeared in dozens of newspapers on each of the two more-recent occasions when the prospect of a new impeachment trial has appeared plausible.
The other occasion is when somebody visits the Capitol’s Hall of Governors. Sulzer’s portrait stands out from all of the others, due to its massive size, its gloomy nature and the former governor’s eerie stare — “equal parts Casanova and Karloff,” the Times Union described it when the hall was opened to the public in 2011.