By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff

Republicans legislators in the New York state Assembly Tuesday called for the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer and threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings if he did not step down in the wake of allegations he is tied to a prostitution ring.

State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco said Tuesday the state’s legislators would initiate the impeachment process if Spitzer does not resign within 24 to 48 hours of his public statement Monday, in which he apologized but did not admit culpability.

“Our hearts and our prayers go out to the governor and his family, his children and his wife, but we have to continue with governance here and this is a total distraction, Tedisco told CNN. “We have asked that the governor resign as soon as possible and we’ve said that within 24 or 48 hours if he does not resign and remove this distraction ... we would put forth a resolution for articles of impeachment.”

Joshua Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Tedisco, said his understanding was that the Republicans would act if Spitzer had not resigned by Thursday afternoon.

Spitzer has not made any public statements since a news conference Monday afternoon in which he said he acted in a way that “violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong.” The conference came hours after the http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html?hp Spitzer was a client of an international prostitution organization identified as “Client 9” in a federal affidavit.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Spitzer aides said that they expected him to resign but were not sure about the timing. The Wall Street Journal quoted a person close to Spitzer as saying that could happen as early as today.

The Times also said that Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson said that Spitzer had told him by telephone yesterday that he didn’t resign “for a number of reasonds,” but didn’t specify them. Paterson told The Times: ““No one has talked to me about his resignation and no one has talked to me about a transition.”

A poll today by SurveyUSA said 67 percent of New Yorkers believed Spitzer should resign, up from 58 percent yesterday when the story first broke.

Spitzer had no public events scheduled for Tuesday.

If Spitzer resigns the position would go to Paterson and the position of lieutenant governor would remain unfilled until the next election. The majority leader in the Senate will retain some of the functions of the lieutenant governor, but there “aren’t many. It’s ceremonial, mostly,” said Lee Daghlian of the New York Secretary of State’s Office,

The Senate majority leader is Republican Joseph L. Bruno, who has had a contentious relationship with Spitzer’s administration. One of Spitzer’s earlier controversies was over “troopergate”, in which it is alleged that Spitzer used state troopers last year to try to conduct surveillance on Bruno in order to determine if he was using a state helicopter for political purposes. Paterson is reported to have a more conciliatory relationship with Bruno than Spitzer does.

As “super delegates” for the heated presidential election, both Spitzer and Paterson support their home-state senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton . In a Feb. 12 interview on the “Colbert Report,” Spitzer unequivocally endorsed Clinton. “I will be there with her all the way through this convention,” he said.

With his resignation Spitzer would lose his super delegate status and New York state would lose one super delegate slot to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. The state no longer would have a lieutenant governor, one of the positions that is included in the state’s allotment of “Party Leaders and Elected Official” (PLEO) delegates, also known as super delegates.