Photo: Sebastien Malo
Eliot Spitzer has acquired an unexpected ally.
Dropout city comptroller candidate Ricardo A. Brown will give comptroller candidate Spitzer his 7,000-odd signatures if any challenges to his petition attempt to disqualify him from running, according to a staffer.
“We are offering it to him if he so chooses,” said staffer Gareth Marchant, a political consultant who works for Brown, on Monday.
Under state election law, a candidate can accept petitions from a dropout candidate following a lengthy procedure at the Board of Elections.
Brown, a 45-year-old Rosedale resident, abandoned his Democratic bid for city comptroller in late June, Marchant said, in order to run in the District 31 city council race, in Queens.
The political consultant said that his candidate’s campaign had yet to formally approach the Spitzer team, and would do so only “if it’s necessary.” He added that Brown was not an acquaintance of Spitzer’s.
Asked if he would approach the Spitzer campaign to offer the petitions in the event Spitzer’s candidacy is challenged at the Board of Elections, Marchant responded, “Yes.”
Eyeing a comeback, disgraced politician Spitzer petitioned the New York electoral authorities Thursday night in order to add his name to the Democratic primary for city comptroller.
The former New York governor’s political career was stained in 2008 by a prostitution scandal that led to his resignation from office.
Last week, he stunned the New York political world by claiming he gathered some 27,000 signatures from supporters — well in excess of the 3,750 needed — only four days after announcing an unexpected campaign.
The show of force has derailed previous speculation that Spitzer’s Democratic primary election rival, the Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, would attempt to disqualify his run asking the Board of Elections to scrutinize and invalidate some of the signatures. Under New York’s strict election laws, such challenges are not uncommon.
Stringer has said he would not attempt to push Spitzer off the ballot. Still, experts have warned that other rivals of Spitzer who take a dim view at his candidacy – in particular Wall Street and union leaders – could find it tempting to file a challenge.
They have until midnight today to file the required paperwork with the Board of Elections, and then another week to detail their objections line by line.
Brown, a certified public accountant, has so far received underwhelming support for his bid for office.
Only two donors have lent him financial backing – a retired Brooklyn resident and Brown himself, for a total of $200 – according to his campaign finance disclosures.
Marchant said that Brown was not hoping to receive any favors for helping Spitzer’s campaign.
“There is no quid pro quo. We just want to see that there’s a race,” he said.
“The reason why we did those petitions in the first place is that we felt that it was wrong for anyone to run unopposed in this democracy. The signatures are going to be good, so why not have another candidate?”
At the Spitzer campaign, spokesperson Lisa Linden said she had “no information about this.”
