Minnesotans heard the gospel according to Eliot Spitzer Tuesday, from the man himself.

Spitzer has become a household name for his relentless probes into corporate fraud, much of it arising from the questionable practices on Wall Street.

Time magazinehas dubbed the New York attorney general "the crusader of the year." London's Guardian newspaper anointed him as "the patron saint of small investors." Fans liken him to President Theodore Roosevelt, whose trust-busting policies ushered in the Progressive Era a century ago.

But the National Review sees him as "the most dangerous politician in America." Some of his corporate targets and their allies seem to agree.

The friendlier characterizations prevailed Tuesday as Spitzer, a Democrat who is a runaway favorite for governor of New York in 2006, paid his first visit to Minnesota.

He spoke to a lunchtime crowd of 400 gathered in the atrium of the University of St. Thomas School of Law in downtown Minneapolis.

Spitzer took his listeners through an anecdote-laced tutorial on why he rejects the theories and practices of the "Chicago School of Economics." He said the Chicago School, built on the arguments of economist Milton Friedman and others who taught at the University of Chicago, began its rise to prominence in 1976 when Ronald Reagan ran unsuccessfully for president.

Reagan weighed in against big government, and struck a popular chord in America. Later, President Bill Clinton picked up on this theme, declaring "the era of big government is over." Efficiency, choice and untrammeled free markets became the clarion calls of the day.

But in Spitzer's view, the government has to step in more often than many free-market advocates would prefer, to guarantee integrity, transparency and fair play and make sure companies meet their fiduciary duty to their investors.

He said enforcers must chase down small transgressions — "the broken windows theory of prosecutions" — to prevent them from escalating into a culture of corruption.

And their job sometimes means toppling powerful individuals who act as though they are above the law. "Ultimately, people who feel that way are brought back to earth," he said.

Spitzer spurned the Chicago School's free-market emphasis on grounds that it doesn't capture "externalities," such as the impact of private transactions on the environment.

Most important, he declared, the private sector alone cannot address the core values expressed in laws curbing child labor, discrimination or low wages.

He said the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in the wake of the WorldCom scandal to curb corporate abuses, was "a very well intentioned response to deep-seated problems." But he said the act may have discouraged growth by scaring companies away from the capital markets and coming down too hard on small businesses.

Spitzer made his first big splashes after the stock market bubbles popped, as investors grew disenchanted with Wall Street and major corporate scandals surfaced.

His office includes 630 attorneys, but just 15 of them have been the spear carriers in most of his probes. Much of the evidence they have turned up has come in the form of incriminating e-mails.

He went after conflicts of interest at the nation's biggest investment firms, where securities analysts were recommending firms' stocks in order to win investment banking business from those firms. He also launched probes of mutual fund trading, insurance industry practices and clinical testing by pharmaceutical companies.

His critics say he is a publicity seeker who announces his probes with cameras running and lights flashing, then forces companies to settle without trials in order to avoid bad publicity and towering legal costs.

Asked about that after his talk, he said: "Ask them to name one fact that isn't true. They settled because we got them."

Spitzer's probes have touched Minnesota companies.

At St. Paul Travelers Cos., he issued subpoenas seeking documents related to industrywide probes of reporting of workers' compensation insurance premiums and to its dealings concerning incentive fees paid to insurance brokers. A company spokeswoman said the insurer continues to cooperate with regulatory requests.

At Securian subsidiary Minnesota Life in St. Paul, Spitzer subpoenaed documents related to industry practices dealing with undisclosed "commission override payments" that go to brokers who sold group life insurance plans to large employers. In a complaint against Universal Life Resources, Spitzer cited as a model to be followed Minnesota Life's refusal to do business with Universal Life because it found that firm's nondisclosure practices inconsistent with good business practices.

The Center for Ethical Business Cultures, the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute and the St. Thomas Law School sponsored Spitzer's talk. Tunheim Partners principal Kathy Tunheim, who is the center's outgoing chair, picked up the tab for the lunch.