Politics & Government

Eliot Spitzer Running for NYC Comptroller

A former governor trying to reignite his political career might just make people care about the comptroller's race.

By Matthew Hampton

Not content to let Anthony Weiner hog the political redemption spotlight, Eliot Spitzer announced Sunday night that he is running for New York City Comptroller. 

Spitzer, when we last saw him, was governor of New York. In March 2008, he resigned after being caught by a wiretap during an FBI prostitution sting.

In an interview with the New York Times, Spitzer said that people have been telling him desperately, breathlessly, to get back into politics and save them from mismanagement of the city budget. And who is he to refuse them?

His fall from grace as governor was perhaps only less well documented than Weiner's because it didn't begin on social media. Unlike Weiner, Spitzer has been out of public office for five years.

He spent much of the time writing op-ed pieces for online publications, and hosting a short-lived CNN show. 

In his interview with the Times, Spitzer tried to steer the discussion of his political career back to his time as New York's attorney general, which he said is more closely related to what the city comptroller does. 

He called the comptroller's role "ripe for greater and more exciting use of the office’s jurisdiction.”

Currently, the front-runner for the office is Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. City Comptroller John Liu is running for mayor and will give up his seat in January regardless of the outcome. 


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