Spitzer Comes In With 27,000 Signatures To Get On The Ballot

From Daily Politics:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer beat the clock and dropped off what he said were more than 27,000 signatures to get him on the ballot for the comptroller's race Thursday night, less than 90 minutes before the midnight cutoff. 

Our Jordan Melendrez and I report:

"To those who said it was not possible over the course of 3.5 days to gather enough signatures to get a candidate on the ballot for citywide office, I'm proud that citizens in an outpouring of support have given us over 27,000 signatures," said Spitzer, who personally delivered the petitions to city Board of Elections headquarters shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Spitzer announced his intention to challenge Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for the nomination late Sunday, leaving him just four days to gather the 3,750 signatures from fellow Democrats needed to qualify for a run.

The ex-governor, who's trying to make a political comeback after resigning in a prostitution scandal, presented the petitions to Board of Elections lawyer Steve Richman as a media gaggle looked on.

Now we'll see how many of those stand up to challenge.

If the Spitzer balloting corps were as ragged as advertised, you can bet thousands of them won't stand up to challenge.

But they'll have to get close to 24,000 tossed - that seems like a tall order.

Politicker reported tonight that the corporate overlords might try another tact to get rid of Spitzer - use a conflict between state and city law to force Spitzer to get 7,500 signatures.

But even then, they have to get close to 20,000 tossed - still a tall order.

Unless something is very, very wrong with those petitions, they're going to have try some other way to beat Spitzer.