Metro

Times Sq. hero vendor House bid

He saw something, said something and now he wants something — a seat in Congress.

Duane Jackson, the hero handbag peddler who famously helped steer cops to a Times Square car bomb, is hoping to make an unlikely transformation from street vendor to politician.

“In Times Square gridlock, there’s a method to the madness,” Jackson told The Post yesterday. “In DC, they’ve lost their way, and they need a pathfinder compass.”

The 59-year-old Westchester man — who held positions in city government in Boston before becoming a street hawker — is challenging freshman Rep. Nan Hayworth in the 19th Congressional District, which includes all of Putnam County and parts of Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Dutchess.

Jackson said his appearance as a humble street vendor shouldn’t fool anyone.

“I have a different narrative and background,” he said. “I think it’s a good one to get to the job done.”

He said he was motivated to do more with his life after the fateful night he alerted cops to Faisal Shahzad’s smoking Nissan Pathfinder just feet from his stand on May 1, 2010.

“That night changed my life,” Jackson said. “People still come up and say, ‘Hey, aren’t you that guy from the May 1 incident?’ Well, I’m more than that guy on the corner.”

Jackson became an instant New York celebrity, with TV appearances, a thank-you call from President Obama and a spot in the FBI Citizens’ Academy.

“That’s where I asked myself, ‘What are you, Duane Jackson, going to do in your community?” he said. “I need to get involved, I need to use the May 1st incident to do something different.”

A Navy veteran and 1976 graduate of Boston University, Jackson formerly worked for Boston in the Department of Education and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

But for 20 years, he’s been a fixture on the city’s streets, operating licensed stands downtown and in Times Square that he said earn him between $28,000 and $34,000 a year.

“If someone is going to look down on me because I’m a street vendor, well that’s their problem,” said Jackson, who prefers using the term “small businessman.”

A Hayworth spokeswoman did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci