While onetime mayoral front-runner Christine Quinn has opted to mostly avoid talking about the late entry of Anthony Weiner into the race, the candidate for comptroller who is not Eliot Spitzer is coming at his last-minute rival straight on. “He hasn’t called — and he should,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who until last night looked like he was coasting to a win come November. “I’m a prime voter,” he quipped. Stringer’s campaign manager, meanwhile, came out right away and blasted Spitzer last night for attempting “to try and buy personal redemption with his family fortune,” setting the tone for a fun few months.
“I don’t think it will fly,” Stringer’s spokesperson added this afternoon about the disgraced governor’s surprise candidacy. “All the people he’s ever worked with don’t like him. Probably that’s an understatement. And there’s a reason for that. He just can’t get along with anyone.”
Stringer was originally campaigning for a mayoral run this year but switched to the comptroller race out of a sense of pragmatism about his chances. Today, the candidate’s Twitter feed included a wave of support from local officeholders and links to disparaging articles about Spitzer. Still, Stringer insisted on the trail, “This is not a race about Eliot or me. This is a race about how we’re going to fight for the city.”
But he does maintain at least one distinct personal advantage over his more (in)famous opponent: the support of Scarlett Johansson. That has to be worth something.
