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YOU CAN'T KEEP A BAD MAN DOWN
By MAGGIE HABERMAN

September 1, 2009 --
Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The 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.

Two sources said Spitzer had thought about a gamut of different electoral choices in his months of political exile.

But one ally insisted he's realized he can't do anything, at least not next year, saying, "There are people around him who want to see him [in office], and he sees himself there, too. He loves to be in the limelight. But he knows it can't happen."

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 for a romp with escort Ashley Dupre, then 22.

Still, the sources said, Spitzer has been looking at avenues for a return to elective office, even if it means mounting a challenge against a fellow Democrat.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, appointed to his post by the state Legislature after Alan Hevesi resigned amid scandal two years ago, is widely seen in Democratic circles as a weak link on the ticket.

Gillibrand is similarly viewed as ripe for a primary challenge, with large numbers of voters saying they have no opinion of her..................>>>>...........................>>>>..............http://www.nypost.com/seven/09012009/news/regionalnews/you_cant_keep_a_bad_man_down_187551.htm