Spitzer Leads Poll After Three Days in Race

After announcing his candidacy on Sunday night, Eliot Spitzer is already the leading candidate in the city's comptroller race, according to a new poll.

The NBC 4 News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed that 42 percent of Democratic voters support Spitzer with 33 percent supporting Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Around 24 percent of voters had yet to make up their mind. 

The poll also indicated that Spitzer's support was slightly stronger among men. 

“Right now, New York City Democrats are willing to give Spitzer a second chance, but the big question is what happens after the shock value of his return to politics fades and the campaign for comptroller heats up,” said Director Lee M. Miringoff of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Having just recently gone down a similar path with Anthony Weiner, Democrats may reach redemption overload for one or both of these candidates.”

The former governor got more good news when it came to comparisons to mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner: 38 percent of those polled would rather have Spitzer as comptroller than Weiner as mayor. Just 22 percent wanted Weiner as mayor over Spitzer as Comptroller. A mere eight percent said they would like to see both win, while 15 percent preferred that neither win. 

In an interview on Geraldo Rivera's radio show Thursday morning, Spitzer said he didn't think the fascination with his candidacy would last forever, and claimed his decision to run wouldn't have any impact on Weiner's race.  

"I don't think over the longer term my jumping in the comptroller's race will have any impact on the mayor's race," Spitzer said. "Soon the media focus will go back to the mayor's race."

One issue Spitzer currently faces is the challenge of getting on the ballot in the first place. Thursday night is the deadline to produce the 3,750 petition signatures needed to get ballot-approval, and most candidates have been working for months to reach that number. 

The big story on Wednesday was just how prevalent Spitzer's petitioning operation was, and whether the signatures he was getting would stand up to a legal challenge. 

No matter how many signatures Spitzer's operation ends up collecting, many could be thrown out via a court challenge initiated by Stringer's campaign, if he chooses to go that route.