Spitzer, Weiner make bids for political comebacks

Associated Press

NEW YORK

First, Anthony Weiner vaulted back from an embarrassing sexting scandal to become a top mayoral contender. Now, Eliot Spitzer has sprinted onto the comeback campaign trail in New York City, where this fall’s races are turning into a mini-Olympics of political redemption.

So Weiner, just two years after a tweeted underwear photo spelled the end of his congressional career, jumps into the race for the nation’s biggest mayoral job less than two months before the deadline to get on the ballot? Well, Spitzer embarked Monday on something just as audacious, if not more so: Only four days before the deadline, he launched a bid to become city comptroller, asking voters to look past the prostitution scandal that cost him the governor’s mansion five years ago in one of politics’ steepest falls from power.

Though the two Democrats insist they’re not looking at each other’s examples, they’re drawing from a common playbook: ask voters for clemency, tell them you’ve changed and focus on what you can do for the city.