Eliot Spitzer should run for office again, says Ashley Dupre

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): Ashley Dupre, the infamous call girl who led to former New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s downfall, has said that the politician should run for office again.

Spitzer had to resign from his office after it was exposed that he met for over two hours with Dupre- the 1,000dollars-an-hour call girl and current Playboy cover girl.

But now, Dupre wants that Spitzer should be given a second chance to run for office.

“Let him run and let the people decide. Give him a fair shot. Everyone deserves a shot, right?” Fox News quoted her as saying.

However, she won’t be voting for her former trick.

“I take responsibility for being involved in it in some way. [But Silda] married a scumbag. He’s the one that made an agreement with her and made a promise, and he broke that promise,” she said.

Dupre also said she felt sorry for the long line of mistresses that have come forward in the Tiger Woods and Jesse James infidelity scandals.

“These girls are coming forward and I don’t think they understand the impact that its having, … for themselves and their future.

Its really hard to break that title [of mistress]. It effects not only them, but their family,” she said. (ANI)

High-priced hooker’s mum dismayed over ex-NY Guv Spitzer’s comeback moves

New York, Sep.2 (ANI): The mother of the high-priced hooker who famously serviced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has expressed dismay over reports that he may consider running for office again less than two years after the sordid sex scandal.

“Only in America,” Ashley Dupre’s mom, Carolyn Capalbo, told The New York Post.

While Spitzer is discussing the possibility of a run next year, Dupre-who was 22 when the self-described “steamroller” of Albany paid to play with her-is struggling to get back on her feet, said Capalbo.

“I really can’t blame him, but at the same time, my daughter’s having a rough go,” she said at the beach, near her home in Wall. “I can imagine she’s not happy about it.”

“He has more credibility than a 22-year-old,” Ashley’s mom said in disbelief.

Capalbo said her daughter had turned down lucrative offers to make a buck off of the scandal, including posing for nude magazines.

Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.

The hooker-happy Democrat has also discussed his own halfway-decent poll numbers in recent surveys, which have shown him more popular than Gov. Paterson, whose own numbers have tanked.

“He”s weighing it,” said one source.

But Spitzer hasn”t shown any interest in campaigning for the office he briefly held, sources said.

The sources stressed that Spitzer, who also served two terms as state attorney general before his landslide election as governor in 2006, has not engaged in any active discussions with political consultants.

Reached at his father”s real-estate firm, where he has been working since he resigned as governor last spring, Spitzer declined comment.

But a source close to him insisted, “It”s not true,” and two other close associates also insisted he was not interested in running for office again and was looking at a range of other options.

Spitzer quit in disgrace in March 2008 after he was unmasked in Manhattan federal court as “Client 9″ in a prostitution bust involving a major call-girl ring. He was revealed to have paid 4,300 dollars for a romp with escort Ashley Dupre, then 22. (ANI)

Ex-New York Governor Spitzer planning political comeback

New York, Sep.1 (ANI): Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is reportedly thinking of a possible political comeback next year, several sources told The New York Post.

Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.

The hooker-happy Democrat has also discussed his own halfway-decent poll numbers in recent surveys, which have shown him more popular than Gov. Paterson, whose own numbers have tanked.

“He’s weighing it,” said one source.

But Spitzer hasn’t shown any interest in campaigning for the office he briefly held, sources said.

The sources stressed that Spitzer, who also served two terms as state attorney general before his landslide election as governor in 2006, has not engaged in any active discussions with political consultants.

Reached at his father’s real-estate firm, where he has been working since he resigned as governor last spring, Spitzer declined comment.

But a source close to him insisted, “It’s not true,” and two other close associates also insisted he was not interested in running for office again and was looking at a range of other options.

Spitzer quit in disgrace in March 2008 after he was unmasked in Manhattan federal court as “Client 9″ in a prostitution bust involving a major call-girl ring. He was revealed to have paid 4,300 dollars for a romp with escort Ashley Dupre, then 22. (ANI)

Eliot Spitzer claims he’s not like Mark Sanford

New York, June 29 (ANI): Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer says that he is not similar to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

Spitzer had resigned in March last year, after it was reported that he was a client of a prostitution ring under investigation by the federal government.

On the other hand, on June 24, 2009, Sanford resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, when it was revealed he was in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian, Maria Belen Chapur.

And thus, at a lunch meeting with LMDC executive director Avi Schick at Solo in the Sony Building on Madison, Spitzer was overheard as saying that there’s a huge difference in what he did and what Sanford has done.

“I didn’t fall in love with any of them,” the New York Post quoted him as telling Schick.

Besides, Spitzer didn’t use any taxpayer money on his trysts, while Sanford is reimbursing the state about 12,000 dollars for travel expenses to Buenos Aires. (ANI)

Spitzers dine out publicly for the first time after his sexcapade

New York, May 8 (ANI): Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and wife Silda went out together Thursday night for the first time publicly since his involvement in a prostitution ring forced him to resign last year.

The smiling couple joined hundreds of Education Through Music friends and supporters at the eighth annual Children’s Benefit Gala honoring Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell.

The Spitzers arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria promptly at 6:30 p.m. and were warmly welcomed by co-chairwoman Karen Karlsrud and other guests, reports the New York Daily News.

They sipped cocktails and occasionally cast lovey-dovey looks at each other while shooting the breeze with folks, including Bell, whose music is featured in the upcoming Tom Hanks’ flick “Angels and Demons.”

After about a half-hour of schmoozing and posing for photos, the Spitzers left holding hands. (ANI)

Ex-New York Guv Spitzer’s return to public stage stirs talk of political comeback

New York, Apr.13 (ANI): Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s return to the public stage, with articles on Wall Street’s role in the economic crisis and interviews on TV and radio, has led some observers to suggest conditions now are better than ever for him to return to the limelight — if he wants to.

“I don’t think he’s interested in a political comeback at this point. I think he’s now at a point where he can move on with his career It’s time to speak out. … He feels a need to make a public contribution. This is a perfect opportunity for him to enter the public debate,” Fox News quoted Mark Weingarten, a Democratic Party activist and friend of Spitzer, as saying.

As New York’s top attorney for eight years, Spitzer sent chills up the spine of people on Wall Street with investigations of white-collar crime, including a fraud case against insurance giant AIG, which led to the resignation of CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and a 1.6 billion dollar settlement.

Spitzer was elected governor by a wide margin in 2006, but he resigned in disgrace in March 2008 when it was revealed he was “Client 9″ of a Washington, D.C., prostitution ring.

Recently he has returned with articles on the Wall Street’s role in the economic crisis and interviews on TV and radio.

But Douglas A. Muzzio, a political scientist at Baruch College and an expert on New York politics, said it would be “real difficult” for Spitzer to mount a political comeback.

“It’s not only his problems as Client 9 but his problem as the …steamroller,” he said, referring to Spitzer’s vow to roll over opponents of his agenda as governor.

Muzzio said that although Spitzer may never be able to win elected office again, he could be appointed to a study commission or advisory council.

Since December, Spitzer has written a column for Slate, offering a critique of the financial crisis, and granted his first interviews since falling from grace last year. (ANI)

`My gremlins pushed me towards hookers,’ says ex-NY Gov. Spitzer

Albany (New York, US), Apr.7 (ANI): Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has described his tryst with hookers “as an egregious violation of my behavior that I fell into for many reasons”.

Admitting that none of them are an excuse or justifiable,” Spitzer told the Today Show in an interview that lasted for a little over eight minutes, that it crossed his mind that what he was doing was not correct.

“But like many things in life, you ignore the obvious at a certain moment because you simply don’t want to confront it,” he said.

“I have tried to address these gremlins and confront them. What I did was an egregious violation of trust to my family, to colleagues, to the state, and I paid a price and appropriately so,” Spitzer said

Spitzer resigned on March 17, 2008 after it became public he was “client 9″ in a federal prostitution investigation.

The Today Show interview was the latest step in Spitzer’s re-introduction to public life. He has written an online column since late last year and recently did a radio and television interview focused almost exclusively on the AIG troubles.

He said he spoke with his wife, Silda, and three daughters before starting recently to resurface in the public eye.

“This is something that has caused excruciating pain to Silda, to my daughters, something that I carry with me every day because of the pain to them. So I try to balance the obligation to try to speak if asked, but also the pain to my family which has been enormous,” he said.

In the end, Spitzer said he considers himself lucky.

“I’m very fortunate guy. I have a spectacular wife, three daughters who are wonderful, forgiving, and there’s moments when you realize that those of the things that matter and those are the things that you should indeed pay attention to,” the New York Daily News quoted him, as saying. (ANI)

Is ex-NY Guv Spitzer eying a political comeback?

New York, Mar.23 (ANI): Having spent almost a year in the public doghouse because of his association with a high-profile Washington-based sex solicitation and gratification ring, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer candidly accepts his personal flaws, but simultaneously says that if an opportunity arises to serve the public again, he would not shy away from it.

Last week, he re-emerged as an early critic of AIG, warned of “rank populism”, praised Obama, suggesting that he has left a door open for a comeback.

In an interview with Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, Spitzer said of his sexcapades: “I would say to them that I never held myself out as being anything other human. I have flaws as we all do, arguably. I failed in a very way in my personal life. And I have paid a price for that. I have spent a year with my family, with my wonderful and amazing and forgiving wife and three daughters and have rebuilt those relationships and hope to do that as time goes on.

“I also feel that to the extent I’m asked and I can contribute to a very important conversation, I will do that as well. That is our right-arguably our obligation as citizens. I will do what I can and with full awareness and heaviness of heart about what I did,” he added.

“I’ve made no excuses. I have not shirked, and I will not do. I failed, I resigned my position because I said, this is the appropriate step for me to take,” Spitzer said.

The former New York Governor said that he hoped the United States could solve existing problems, “because the future of our economy and without overstating, our nation, is at stake here. If I can contribute, I will do so in whatever way I can.”

“Obviously I care deeply about these issues, they were central to what I did as attorney general. And so I read the papers and say, sure. These are issues that I feel deeply about,” he added.

When asked by Zakaria whether he ever imagined being back in government? Spitzer said: “I don’t think about it, I don’t worry about it. I focus on my family, on the issues. I write an occasional column and speak occasionally. That is all I’m doing.” (ANI)

Ex-NY Governor Spitzer is a now a real estate investor

New York, Mar.6 (ANI): Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is back at work as a commercial real estate investor from a Washington office just a block from the Mayflower Hotel room where he hooked up with 22-year-old prostitute Ashley Dupree and, as a result, doomed his career.

Spitzer, using with his father’s real estate company, bought 1615 L Street N.W., a 13-story dark-glass building that houses his office.

One of the other tenants is the Nixon Presidential Library.

The Spitzer building actually overlooks the Mayflower.

Last month, a U.S. district judge said tapes of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer making calls to a prostitution ring could be made public.

According to Fox News, a Manhattan judge had ordered the government to make public sealed documents about wiretaps in the Eliot Spitzer scandal.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered prosecutors to release documents detailing calls on cell phones used by a prostitution ring whose clients included the former governor. The documents were not immediately released; prosecutors will have a chance to appeal.

The New York Times sued late last year to get the material unsealed. The newspaper has agreed to allow the government to withhold the names of 67 customers named in the documents.

Spitzer resigned last year after details were revealed of a tryst with one of the ring’s prostitutes in a Washington hotel.

Investigators had been looking into the governor’s affairs after noticing unusual activity — later shown to be payments to prostitutes — in his bank accounts. Spitzer was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps.

Court papers allege Spitzer paid thousands of dollars to use the services of former call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre, and law enforcement officials have said the former governor had a February 13, 2008 tryst with Dupre, then 22, in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Spitzer allegedly paid for Dupre to take a train from New York to D.C. — a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines.

Spitzer, who was referred to as Client 9 in federal documents, was alleged to be a repeat customer with the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution service. (ANI)

Hooker boss in Spitzer prostitute scandal sentenced to six months in prison

New York, Jan.30 (ANI): A woman who ran former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s favorite call-girl ring, has been sentenced to six months in prison by Manhattan Federal Judge Barbara Jones.

Jones rejected prosecutors’ recommendation of a 21-to-27 month sentence for Cecil (Katie) Suwal, citing the Svengali-like power Emperors Club VIP boss Mark Brener once had over the 24-year-old.

According to the New York Daily News, Alberto Ebanks drove home the point by noting she has an out-of-the-way tattoo on her body that reads “Property of Mark Brener.”

“She became his paramour, his companion and ultimately his assistant,” Ebanks said.

Suwal, clad in a black and white pantsuit, her dark hair wrapped in a matching bow, needed more than a minute to compose herself before tearfully apologizing for her crimes. (ANI)