Democratic primary
New York City borough President Scott Stringer was considered to be the front runner for the Democratic nomination, having raised nearly $3.5 million as of July 7, 2013. When former New York governor Eliot Spitzer announced his intention to run for the office, he brought a larger challenge to Stringer. In 2008, while governor, Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal. His name recognition as a former governor was expected to help him in the election, while the scandal was also expected to harm his chances. "I'm hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it," Spitzer said, commenting on the scandal. [2] "Politics is a contact sport," Spitzer said on July 8, on radio's The Bill Press Show. "I made significant errors. I stood up, accepted responsibility, resigned. It's now been five years, I hope the public will extend its forgiveness to me." [3]
Scott M. Stringer is the 44th and current New York City Comptroller and a New York Democratic politician who previously served as the 26th Borough President of Manhattan.
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American politician, attorney, and educator. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 54th Governor of New York.
On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer had patronized a prostitution ring run by an escort service known as Emperors Club VIP. During the course of an investigation into Emperors Club VIP, the federal government became aware of Spitzer's involvement with prostitutes due to a wiretap. Following the public disclosure of his actions, Spitzer resigned as Governor effective March 17, 2008.
Coincidentally, Spitzer was running against Kristin M. Davis (who is running as a Libertarian), his former madam who had helped him get call girls as governor. She spent 3 months in prison for running an escort service. "This is going to be the funnest campaign ever," she told The New York Daily News. "I’ve been waiting for my day to face [Spitzer] for five years," Davis said. "I sat ... in Rikers Island, I came out penniless and nothing happened to him. The hypocrisy there is huge." [4] [5]
Kristin M. Davis, formerly known as the Manhattan Madam, is a former madam who was famous for running a high-end prostitution ring in New York City which claimed to have offered its services to several high-profile clients, including Eliot Spitzer, Alex Rodriguez and David Beckham. After her conviction for her prostitution activities, Davis ran a novelty campaign for Governor of New York in 2010 and was poised to run for New York City Comptroller in 2013 before being arrested for drug dealing.
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism and shrinking the size and scope of government. The party was conceived at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado in 1971 and was officially formed on December 11, 1971 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription and the end of the gold standard.
Stringer's campaign immediately responded to Spitzer's candidacy. On July 8, his campaign manager released a statement saying, "Scott Stringer has a proven record of results and integrity and entered this race to help New York's middle class regain its footing. By contrast, Eliot Spitzer is going to spurn the campaign finance program to try and buy personal redemption with his family fortune. The voters will decide." The statement alluded to Spitzer's family fortune. [6] Prior to Spitzer's announcement, Stringer had already received several endorsements from candidates in the mayoral election, most of whom did not withdraw their endorsements after Spitzer's announcement. One of the first to publicly state her support of Stringer was Christine Quinn, who is the Speaker of the New York City Council. She stated, "Scott Stringer has been an exceptional borough president with the highest ethical standards. He has my full support and I will do whatever I can to help him become the next comptroller of the City of New York." [7]
Christine Callaghan Quinn is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she formerly served as the Speaker of the New York City Council. The third person to hold this office, she was the first female and first openly gay speaker. She ran to succeed Michael Bloomberg as the city's mayor in the 2013 mayoral election, but lost the Democratic primary. Quinn is a CNN political contributor.
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
Spitzer appeared on CNBC's Morning Joe on July 9, and was visibly emotional when asked about what he had learned the past five years. [8]
CNBC is an American pay television business news channel that is owned by NBCUniversal Broadcast, Cable, Sports and News, a division of NBCUniversal, with both being ultimately owned by Comcast. Headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the network primarily carries business day coverage of U.S. and international financial markets; following the end of the business day and on non-trading days, CNBC primarily carries financial and business-themed documentaries and reality shows.
Morning Joe is a weekday NBC News morning news and talk show, airing from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on the network's cable news channel MSNBC. It features former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough providing both reporting and discussion on the news of the day in a panel format with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, among others.
Stringer's fundraising soared dramatically after Spitzer's announcement. During the week of July 8, Stringer raised over $100,000. In all, Stringer has spent just over $679,000 and has $3 million on hand. Spitzer declared that he can use his family fortune to finance his campaign. Although he hired staffers to collect petitions, Spitzer's campaign did not list any major spending during the most recent filing period. [9]
On July 11, a deadline passed for candidates to file an ethics report. Several of the candidates, most notably Spitzer, did not file the report in time. Not filing a report can lead to a fine of between $250 and $10,000. However, there is a 1-week grace period before any penalties are enforced. A lawyer representing Spitzer's campaign said the candidate was "very busy" last week working on filing petitions with the signatures he needed to secure a spot on the Democratic ballot. A spokesperson for Stringer's campaign stated, "The old Eliot Spitzer supported stringent ethics disclosure. Just as we've seen on his decision to abandon campaign spending limits he once supported, it's increasingly clear that Eliot Spitzer believes there are two standards in public life—one for him, and one for everyone else." [10] Even with that news, Spitzer was still leading in polls conducted. [11]
In an ad that began airing during the week of July 22, 2013, Spitzer admitted that he "failed-big time." He went on to say, "I hurt a lot of people. When you dig yourself a hole, you can either lie in it the rest of your life, or do something positive. That's why I'm running... Everyone, no matter who you are, deserves a fair shot. I'm asking voters to give the same for me." [12]
News coverage about the election (and, more specifically, Spitzer's attempt at redemption) have been mixed. On July 18 CNN host Jake Tapper talked about Spitzer's "incredibly reckless and ... very illegal" prostitution scandal. In an interview on The Colbert Report , comedian Stephen Colbert noted Spitzer's lead in the polls by asking, "Do you [Spitzer] think that signals progress for our country or the slow decay of our moral values?" After Spitzer began laughing, Colbert declared, "This isn't Charlie Rose motherf**ker!" Speaking about Spitzer's own qualifications Colbert asked if Spitzer was "at once and the same time above and below this job?" He later asked, "Shouldn't the job of comptroller go to someone who has shown a modicum of self-comptrol? Why should the people trust you?" "The totality of a record," Spitzer suggested, such as his time as Attorney General, make him a suitable candidate. In 2010, after the initial scandal, Colbert told him he could be honest with him because Spitzer had "no public image to uphold." [13] [14] However, Politico blogger Gary Bauer suggested that, unlike Anthony Weiner (who was running for mayor), Spitzer seemed to be redeeming himself. [15] Similarly, the Los Angeles Times noted that, while Spitzer's past had hurt him, voters were beginning to forgive him, noting that, unlike Weiner, Spitzer stopped his behavior immediately after leaving office. [16]
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s)
administered | Sample
size | Margin of
error | Eliot
Spitzer | Scott
Stringer | Other | Undecided |
|---|
| PPP | September 7–8, 2013 | 683 | ± 3.8% | 45% | 41% | — | 14% |
| Quinnipiac | September 6–8, 2013 | 782 | ± 3.5% | 43% | 50% | 1% | 7% |
| Marist | September 3–6, 2013 | 556 | ± 4.2% | 47% | 45% | <1% | 7% |
| Quinnipiac | August 28–September 1, 2013 | 750 | ± 3.6% | 45% | 47% | — | 7% |
| Siena | August 19–28, 2013 | 505 | ± 4% | 50% | 35% | — | 15% |
| amNewYork/News 12 | August 22–27, 2013 | 600 | ± 4% | 46% | 43% | — | 10% |
| Quinnipiac | August 22–27, 2013 | 602 | ± 4% | 46% | 46% | — | 8% |
| Marist | August 12–14, 2013 | 355 | ± 5.2% | 53% | 34% | 1% | 11% |
| Quinnipiac | August 7–12, 2013 | 579 | ± 4.1% | 56% | 37% | — | 7% |
| Siena | August 2–7, 2013 | 505 | ± 4% | 44% | 35% | 2% | 19% |
| Marist | July 24, 2013 | 551 | ± 4.2% | 49% | 32% | 2% | 17% |
| Quinnipiac | July 18–23, 2013 | 507 | ± 4.4% | 49% | 45% | — | 6% |
| Quinnipiac | July 8–14, 2013 | 738 | ± 3.6% | 48% | 33% | 1% | 19% |
| Marist | July 8–9, 2013 | 546 | ± 4.2% | 42% | 33% | 1% | 24% |
Results
2013 New York City Comptroller Election Democratic Primary Results [23] | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|
|
| Democratic | Scott Stringer | 314,285 | 52.1 |
|
| Democratic | Eliot Spitzer | 288,739 | 47.9 |
|
