Ex-Madam, Who Supplied Escorts to Eliot Spitzer, Challenges Him in NYC Comptroller Race
Former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace in 2008 for patronizing a high-end escort service, has announced that he is running for comptroller of New York City. And Kristin Davis, the ex-madam jailed for supplying him with prostitutes through the service, is challenging him for the job.
"I've been waiting for my day to face him for five years," Davis told the New York Daily News of her now political opponent who was once known as "Client No. 9" to her call girl Ashley Dupre.
"I sat ... in Rikers Island, I came out penniless and nothing happened to him. The hypocrisy there is huge," she noted of the four-month stint she endured after she was convicted of one count of promoting prostitution in the third degree.
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On her campaign website, Davis, who claims to have served 10 years as senior vice president of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, explained that she has the background and expertise to "be an effective fiscal watchdog for New York taxpayers."
Among other things, Davis, who is running as a Libertarian, says she wants to decriminalize marijuana use in New York and put an end to stop and frisk policies.
"This is going to be the funnest campaign ever," said Davis.
Spitzer, who announced his intention to run for public office following the footsteps of his scandal-scarred political colleague Anthony Weiner, told the Daily News that he was prepared for questions about the scandal that derailed his political ambitions less than 15 months after he sat in the state's governor's office.
"I have no doubt there will be questions about that," he said. "I have no hesitance about addressing those questions. They are fair questions. Life has peaks and valleys. The peaks are more fun, but the valleys are more educational."
"I hope I have learned. I hope I have changed. I seek this office with humility," he said.
But some New Yorkers seemed wary of the reformed Spitzer.
"It's amazing to me how men aren't learning," Melissa McGovern, 41, an independent voter told the New York Times. "He needs to address the scandal, to beg forgiveness, and prove we can trust him."
On Manhattan's Upper West Side, other voters told the Times that Spitzer deserves forgiveness, pointing out that his best qualities "– tenacity, intelligence, experience – should not be overlooked."
"If it gives him pleasure, let him do it," said Ernest Ulrich, 85, a retired exporter who called himself a "Spitzer optimist." "People have become very tolerant of all sorts of shenanigans."
Lawyer Glenda Grace, however, told the Times that she was not excited by Spitzer's comeback attempt.
"Some lifetime politicians can't find a way to live outside of politics, to move on, to do something else," said Grace. "Anthony Weiner opened the floodgates."
