Eliot Spitzer Launches His Comeback

Five years after a prostitution scandal forced him out of office, Eliot Spitzer is ready to face voters again—and, just like Anthony Weiner, he's chosen New York City for his political comeback. The former governor is running for city comptroller and says, "I'm hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it," the New York Times reports. Asked whether he was encouraged by the mayoral run of Weiner, who is tied with Christine Quinn in the polls, Spitzer said only that he had been approached by many New Yorkers who encouraged him to seek office again.

The current frontrunner in the comptroller race is Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer—whose campaign manager blasted Spitzer for opting out of the public finance program to "try and buy personal redemption with his family fortune"—but Spitzer will also be competing against the madam who once knew him as Client 9. Kristin Davis, who is running as a Libertarian, says she has been waiting for years for the chance to face off against the "hypocritical" Spitzer. "This is going to be the funnest campaign ever," she tells the New York Daily News. Davis also vowed to oppose Spitzer when he was mulling a run for statewide comptroller in 2009. (More Eliot Spitzer stories.)