[6] Mayor Spencer insisted that the city had met its obligations and called for the removal of the New York State Control Board.

Judge Sand agreed and after negotiations gave control back to the city on both issues, thus ending the Federal role in Yonkers.

Retail and housing were built on the downtown waterfront, a new library was completed, along with the Austin Avenue development of Costco, Home Depot, and Stew Leonard's.

[8] In November 2003, Spencer could not run for re-election as mayor due to the term limits law that he himself championed and then tried to rescind.

In 2005, Spencer announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was seeking re-election to a second term.

[citation needed] On August 18, 2005, Spencer gave a radio interview where he said Westchester County, New York District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, another candidate for the Republican nomination, didn't have a "Chinaman's chance" of getting the Conservative line.

On May 31, 2006, Spencer won the endorsement of the state Republican Party organization but did not achieve the threshold of 75 percent he needed to exclude his rival, former Pentagon aide Kathleen Troia "K.T."

In his 2006 election campaign, Spencer came out in favor of a New York Court of Appeals decision rejecting the claim of 42 gay and lesbian couples that same-sex marriage as constitutional right.

On Kevin McCullough's talk radio program,[13] Spencer said marriage is "between a man and a woman" and that a constitutional amendment is needed to enshrine that.