Metro

Quinn ‘elbows’ Stringer

There may not be room for two Manhattan candidates in the race for mayor.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is telling friends that people linked to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn are maliciously spreading rumors that he’s going to drop out of the mayoral race and run for comptroller.

“He’s getting very frustrated by it,” said one Stringer ally. “It’s making people stand back in supporting him. He’s very vocal about running for mayor.”

Veteran political consultant Emily Giske, who’s friendly with Stringer but is supporting Quinn, reached out to the Stringer camp to “try to negotiate something,” two sources said.

“She’s [Quinn] very concerned about Scott. He takes a lot of her Manhattan vote and a lot of the vote that would have gone to [former Rep. Anthony] Weiner,” claimed the Stringer ally.

One source said there’s even been talk of a Quinn-Stringer ticket that would be backed by Mayor Bloomberg, which would be something to see since the mayor is no fan of the beep.

Stringer has been telling supporters he’d clobber Quinn in Manhattan, since his political base is the Upper West Side and it accounts for 10 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, and he’d also draw votes from Jews and moderate voters that might otherwise go to Quinn.

If all six current candidates stay in the mayoral mix, it’s unlikely any would grab the minimum 40 percent of the vote needed to avert a runoff.

That means that even a second-place finisher, pitted against the right opponent, could be sitting in City Hall in 2014.

“If he’s in a runoff with her [Quinn], he beats her,” insisted the Stringer ally.

Quinn backers shrug off Stringer as a formidable obstacle and firmly deny that there have been any approaches to work out a deal.

“It’s not true,” said Giske of her alleged role in the behind-the-scenes intrigues.

Some on the Quinn side say Stringer will eventually come to his senses and figure out on his own that he’d be the immediate favorite in the comptroller’s race if scandal-plagued incumbent John Liu, one of the mayoral contenders, keeps running and his seat is open.

dseifman@nypost.com