WASHINGTON – With Jeanine Pirro’s announcement last Wednesday that she was dropping out of the U.S. Senate race, and with Edward Cox still on the sidelines after entering the race and then withdrawing, the former mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, is, for the moment at least, the last significant Republican standing who wants to run against Senator Clinton in 2006.

So who is John Spencer?

In an hour-long phone interview, the 59-year-old father of five talked about his past, including a period of problem drinking after returning from combat in Vietnam, and provided greater detail on issues ranging from taxes and his support for school choice to immigration and abortion.

On taxes, Mr. Spencer boasts about his eight-year record in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one. After beating an incumbent Democrat, Mr. Spencer said he cut a surcharge on state income tax and the city’s real estate transfer tax by two-thirds. He said he kept property tax increases to an average annual increase of 4%. And he said that he would like to see President Bush’s tax cuts made permanent.

“I think tax cuts spur economic development and spur on the economy,” Mr. Spencer said. “That’s been proven. The tax cuts should be made permanent. I think tax cuts are the way to go.”

On immigration, Mr. Spencer said that he does not know what to do about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who live in America. He said he is focused instead on stopping the flow.

“I don’t claim to sit here on December 26 and claim to have all the answers,” he said. “But to me, a common sense approach would be to take an inventory of these people to see what needs to be done – somehow close the valve, take an inventory, and shut down new immigrants coming in so you can handle what you have here.”

On abortion, Mr. Spencer says he wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. But, he said, he is not intent on imposing penalties for women who have abortions or doctors who perform the procedures. He said he would move to divert state and federal money that currently goes to fund abortions to instead go to counseling programs aimed at promoting adoption. Mr. Spencer said his views on this issue are based largely on his own experience of being adopted by an Irish family in Yonkers when he was an infant. Mr. Spencer was one of nine children in the family; his father was a groundskeeper at a local country club.

“What I would hope for is a governor and state that, over time, would get more into counseling and the human side of abortion with troubled young women, because it’s not just an aborted baby issue,” Mr. Spencer said. “It’s a women’s issue. I’ve cried with these women. What I would do is get more into adoption.”

What about the war on terror?

Mr. Spencer gives President Bush high marks for “bringing the war on terror where it belongs – the other side of the world.” He also criticized senators who have questioned the president’s handling of the war.

“It’s very comforting to the enemy to have high-profile senators saying that our president doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Mr. Spencer said. “I would not conduct myself like that no matter who the president was.”

On education, Mr. Spencer said he favors school choice. “I’m for a voucher system if we could figure it out, and charter schools. I support that.”

Mr. Spencer said he would leave questions about troop levels and strategy to the commanders on the ground. As for regime change, he said he supports military action against nations that are thought to pose an imminent threat to America.

“I think troop levels and war efforts are not left to pinhead politicians but to generals,” he said. “There is a command structure, and our military is very competent. When they are on a mission, they tell the president they need more or less, and the president should give them that. But for senators to sit in the chamber and voice their opinions is nonsensical to me. It’s not their job. It’s their job to support the effort or not to support it, not to quarterback it from Chappaquiddick, or wherever they are.”

As with many other issues, Mr. Spencer said his approach to the military is based largely on experience. A graduate of the now defunct Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers, Mr. Spencer spent two years at Westchester Community College before enlisting in the Army in 1966 at age 19. He spent one year in Vietnam as a platoon leader of the 196th Infantry Division. He said he spent the year just south of Danang. He planned to go back to college when he returned, he said, but turned around because of the anti-war climate on campus.

He said the experience colored his view of Senator Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and Vietnam veteran who testified against the war before Congress upon his own return.

“I knew of him back then and have the appropriate feeling of him to this day,” Mr. Spencer said.” He’s a terrible, terrible guy. He came back, went before Congress and lied and lied and lied and continues to do so.”

Mr. Spencer is not shy about his past mistakes, particularly his history with alcohol. Though he said he stopped drinking at age 29, Mr. Spencer talks openly of getting into fist fights and of having been “a mess” when he was in his 20s. After being term-limited out of office last year, Mr. Spencer opened a consulting firm, Spencer Consulting, which specializes in alcohol and substance-abuse counseling.

To many, the only thing Mr. Spencer would appear to have going for him in the race against Mrs. Clinton is the disappearance of her other would-be Republican challengers. As of late September, the former first lady had nearly $14 million in cash – and that was before she hosted a $500-a-plate event for 900 supporters in New York City. As of the same filing date, Mr. Spencer had $53,962.

Still, Mr. Spencer said he is determined to run this race to the end.

He said he doubts that Mr. Cox will get back into the race, as some have speculated.

“I think it would be kind of strange for a guy who drops out so fast, like in a nanosecond, to be contemplating getting back in,” he said.

And he said he is shoring up his own support, and not only among the state’s Conservative Party leaders. He said Republicans who shunned him this fall began warming up to him during a meeting of party leaders earlier this month when Mrs. Pirro’s drop-out seemed inevitable.

“It was just body language,” Mr. Spencer said, referring to the chairman of the Republican State Committee, Stephen Minarik. “Him and a couple other guys were grabbing me out in the hallway. The spirit was sort of flowing that it sort of looked good.”

Mr. Spencer insists that the race against Mrs. Clinton is not personal. He said the two have met on several occasions, and he described her as “charming.” The issue, he said, comes down a difference in outlook.

“She’s a liberal Democrat, and I’m a conservative Republican,” he said. “And her idea of a U.S. senator is totally different than mine. I wouldn’t travel around with an entourage and give sound bites. I would spend all my time trying to help the people of New York State. I think she is distracted and cares more about her national agenda. We’re just different.”