Eliot Spitzer has decided to run for comptroller of New York City.
The disgraced former New York governor, a.k.a. Client No. 9, resigned from office in 2008 after a prostitution scandal. Since then, among other things he’s hosted two failed political TV talks shows, one on CNN that was cancelled in July 2011, and another on Current TV that ended when Al Gore sold the network to Al Jazeera.
Perhaps Spitzer saw his fellow Democrat Anthony Weiner , the former sexting Congressman who also was forced into a resignation in June 2011, become a viable candidate for New York City mayor, and decided the time was right for his own political comeback. GOP Gov. Mark Sanford, who unlike the other two managed to finish out his elected term, won a special election in May for a House seat in South Carolina despite being immersed in his own sex scandal.
Spitzer needs 3,750 valid petition signatures by Thursday to get on the primary ballot which should be easy for his staff to accomplish.The comptroller is the municipal office that monitors the city’s accounting compliance and financial reporting. Former Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was considered a shoo-in for the job until Spitzer made his announcement.
Of his decision to run for comptroller despite the 2008 scandal that brought him down, the former governor told the New York Times that “I’m hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it.” He similarly told the New York Daily News that “I hope I have learned. I hope I have changed. I seek this office with humility.”
In a bit of irony for Spitzer, the Daily News also points out that “the ex-madam who supplied him with call girls, Kristin Davis, will be running against him on the Libertarian line.”
Of the Weiner mayor candidacy, incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said “shame on us” if he gets elected. Do you wonder if he feels the same way about Eliot Spitzer running for comptroller?
He should learn some self-comptrol first.
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 8, 2013