Democratic Primary for New York City Comptroller
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer seemed to be coasting toward an easy victory in the race to become city comptroller, the person charged with overseeing the city’s money. But in July, disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer made his surprise political reappearance — and Stringer’s cakewalk into office no longer seemed so sweet.
SCOTT STRINGER
• Democrat, Manhattan borough president, former state assemblyman representing Manhattan.
• Served six terms in the state legislature from 1992 until 2005. Elected Manhattan beep in 2005.
• 53, married, two children.
ELIOT SPITZER
• Democrat, former governor of New York and former New York attorney general.
• Elected New York’s top lawman in 1999 and served seven years. Elected governor in 2007, but resigned in disgrace a year later.
• 54, married, three children.
THE CAMPAIGN
• Stringer was running uncontested until Spitzer entered.
• Stringer has hit Spitzer for the prostitution scandal that forced him out of office, and for the so-called Troopergate scandal, when the then-governor had state police keep tabs on then–state Senate majority leader Joe Bruno.
• Spitzer has attacked Stringer as a limp, ineffectual machine politician with no experience handling financial matters and no significant accomplishments.