Eliot Spitzer took off the gloves in his first attack ad in the race for comptroller yesterday, railing against Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for supporting the unpopular extension of term limits.
The Love Gov’s potshot at the longtime politician — who insists he has supported abolishing term limits as a principle for years — came one day after a Quinnipiac University poll showed the two contenders running neck-and-neck in the formerly lopsided race.
The ad paints Stringer as an establishment figure who cut “back-room deals” that paved the way for the City Council’s repeal of term limits in 2008, which subsequently allowed Mayor Bloomberg to run — and win — a third term in office.
Stringer testified at a City Council hearing in support of the measure at the time, but his seat carries no official role in the legislative vote.
“Anyone who has watched the debates or checked their mailboxes knows that Scott Stringer has been running a negative campaign from Day 1,” said Spitzer campaign manager Miriam Hess. “All we are doing is pointing out the facts of his record.”
Stringer’s camp derided the hard knock by the disgraced governor — who resigned in 2008 after getting caught soliciting high-priced hookers — as a “desperate attempt to mislead voters.”
“It’s disappointing that Eliot Spitzer’s campaign to return to public life is reverting to the same old politics that destroyed his governorship — baseless, false attacks that seek to divide our city,” said Stringer campaign spokeswoman Audrey Gelman.
The late-round haymaker sparked the release of an immediate counterpunch ad by Stringer that played up themes he has trumpeted throughout the campaign.
It contrasts Stringer’s record of “integrity” with Spitzer’s fall from grace.
“Spitzer jailed people for prostitution and financial crimes. When he got caught doing the very same thing, he held himself to a different standard — and walked away scot-free,” the commercial says of the former front-runner in the race.
The federal probe that took down the former attorney general was sparked by questionable money transfers but ultimately centered on prostitution.
Spitzer, like most johns caught up in prostitution cases, was never charged with a crime.
Stringer’s ad also touts the candidate’s positive attributes, using the endorsement of the city’s three major newspapers to do so.
“In response to Eliot Spitzer’s baseless, unfounded attacks, Stringer 2013 has chosen to remind voters that there is a very ‘clear choice’ in the race for comptroller,” said spokeswoman Gelman.
The back-and-forth is emblematic of what’s been an increasingly bruising campaign, even though both candidates insisted at a recent debate that they’re still pals.
The former governor has been the recipient of the biggest lumps — largely because his downfall took place in dramatic fashion on the public stage.