First here was San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, whose political career — and mayorship — made him FORMER Mayor Bob Filner after 18 women (now it’s 19) stepped forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. Then there was former Rep. Anthony Weiner, whose serial sexting led to voter ire that seemed to make his campaign look more like a cry for counseling than a run for New York City Mayor. And now we have former New York Gov. Mayor Elliot Spitzer, whose private stimulus program to New York prostitutes led him to resign to spend more time with his humiliated family: despite earlier reports that indicated polls showed him comfortably ahead in his race for New York City Comptroller, he has lost ground — and now is tied:
Eliot Spitzer’s commanding lead in the race for city comptroller has vanished, according to a new poll.
A Quinnipiac University survey released on Thursday found the former New York governor tied with rival Scott Stringer, 46 percent to 46 percent, less than two weeks before the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
That’s a major shift from only two weeks ago, when Spitzer led Stringer by 19 points, 56 percent to 37 percent.
Stringer, who serves as Manhattan borough president, appears to be getting a bump in name recognition against the once-better-known Spitzer. In the past two weeks, Stringer has received the endorsement from all three daily newspapers in the city — along with key local endorsements, including from former Gov. David Paterson, who succeeded Spitzer in office.
Stringer had been running unopposed when Spitzer jumped into the race at the last minute in July as part of a quest for political redemption five years after he resigned from the governor’s office after admitting to dalliances with prostitutes
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Could it be that by November The Three Stooges of sex scandals will all be gone from the political scene? If so it should — but I bet it won’t — send a message to politicians everywhere.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.