NY1 ItCH: Could Eliot Spitzer Be Sputtering Out?

[hrmjustin]

By: Bob Hardt

When Eliot Spitzer steamrolled his way into the race for City Comptroller just two months ago, it looked like he was going to treat Scott Stringer like a speed bump on his road to political recovery. Instead, the campaign has turned into a street fight – with Spitzer going negative on Stringer this morning in a radio ad. What happened?

Spitzer may not have calculated how virtually the entire Democratic establishment -- which was never in love with him even at his peak – would quickly and loudly come out on in favor of Stringer. In addition, the city’s three major daily newspapers all piled on last month, forcefully endorsing the Manhattan Borough President in his campaign against the former Luv Guv. Meanwhile, Stringer assembled a campaign staff that has been aggressive in taking its swings at Spitzer while also pushing the candidate across the five boroughs. Stringer is also getting the help of the many enemies who Spitzer made while he was state Attorney General and governor. By entering the race so late, Spitzer is relying on a team of newbies who are learning as they go along.

In addition, Spitzer adopted an early Rose Garden strategy in the campaign, foregoing any major policy speeches and focusing instead on putting out clever 30-second TV spots crafted by Jimmy Siegel. Although the ads may have put Spitzer back into the popular consciousness, they have done little to impress the political intelligentsia. While Spitzer never really had a chance to win that group of eggheads back over, he may have alienated them even further by not even attempting to mouth policy pieties.

If you believe the polls in this race, there’s a real geographic and racial split between the supporters of the two candidates. African-American and non-Manhattan voters are skewing heavily toward Spitzer while Stringer is getting the support of white Manhattan liberals – the kind of people who usually vote in primaries more than any other group. Trying to energize the black vote, Spitzer today launched an ad on at least one radio station with a heavily African-American audience, attacking Stringer on term limits, an issue that Stringer had little direct say on since he never served in the City Council.

http://www.ny1.com/content/politics/ny1_political_itch/188252/ny1-itch--could-eliot-spitzer-be-sputtering-out-

[hrmjustin]

1. Both of their campaigns are going negative in the last few days.