Spitzer Leads Stringer In Marist Poll (UPDATED)

Wow:

Five years after a prostitution scandal forced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer from office, many Democrats appear willing to give him a shot at political redemption, according to a new poll that shows him with a strong lead in the city comptroller race.

Spitzer only announced his candidacy Sunday, and it isn't yet clear whether he will gather enough signatures by a Thursday deadline to make the Sept. 10 Democratic primary ballot. But 42 percent of registered Democrats already say they support Spitzer, compared to 33 percent for his potential rival, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll shows.

Spitzer resigned as governor in 2008 after he was caught on a wiretap arranging to meet a prostitute. In the new poll, taken Monday and Tuesday, 67 percent of Democrats said he deserved a second chance, and 44 percent said he was a changed man. Nearly two-thirds said his scandal mattered little to the race, or not at all.

He also enjoys a healthy favorability rating, with 46 percent of Democrats saying they had a positive opinion of him, compared to 40 percent saying the same of Stringer.

The poll of 536 registered Democrats has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

OK, couple of things here.

First, Spitzer has to get on the ballot.  He has approximately 26 hours to gather 3,750 signatures, but he really needs closer to 10,000 because the Stringer campaign is going to challenge each and every one of them.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is, Stringer has to be hitting himself in the head with a shovel tonight, because he thought he had this all wrapped up and now it's clear he doesn't.

And finally, Mikey Mulgrew and the corrupt union leadership in this city, along with Kathryn Wilde and the corporate criminal class, have got to be none too happy about this poll either.

They will now do everything they can to keep Spitzer off the ballot because this poll shows that he has a good shot to actually be the next comptroller.

And then watch out - because he's got scores to settle.

UPDATE - 10:32 PM: One of the scores he's going to look to settle is with Michael Mulgrew and the UFT.

Spitzer noted the following tonight:

The former governor said he is confident he would get on the ballot despite "pressure having been applied to folks who had said they were going to participate, to pull out. That's OK. That's hardball politics."

Mulgrew is the guy he's talking about there - he's the guy who got the petitioning company, Red Horse Strategies, to drop Spitzer.

You can bet that if makes the ballot and then gets elected, he'll play hardball politics back with Mulgrew and the UFT.