Deadline Near, Spitzer Seeks To Join City Comptroller Race Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York five years ago amid a prostitution scandal, is re-entering political life, with a run for the citywide office of comptroller and a hope that voters are ready to look past his previous misconduct. Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, said he was eager to plunge back into politics and believed he could revolutionize the often-overlooked city office into a new model for government accountability and shareholder activism. "I'm hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it," he said in a telephone interview on Sunday night. His re-entry comes in an era when politicians - like Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina and the New York mayoral contender Anthony D. Weiner - have shown that public disapproval, especially over sexual misconduct, can be fleeting, and voters seem open to those who seek forgiveness and redemption. Mr. Spitzer, an aggressive watchdog over Wall Street when he served as attorney general of New York, said he wanted to transform the comptroller's office into a robust agency that would not merely monitor and account for city spending, as it does now, but conduct regular inquiries into the effectiveness of government policies, in areas like education. Such a reading of the office, which would significantly expand its scope, could put Mr. Spitzer into conflict with the city's next mayor, much as his reign as attorney general put him at odds with federal regulators of Wall Street. "The metaphor is what I did with the attorney general's office," he said on Sunday night. It is ripe for greater and more exciting use of the office's jurisdiction. Since resigning as governor, Mr. Spitzer, 54, has worked as a television commentator on Current TV and NY1. The son of a wealthy real estate developer, Mr. Spitzer said that he would pay for his campaign out of his own fortune, forgoing the city's public financing system. Mr. Spitzer has little time to waste: To make the primary ballot in September, candidates for citywide office - mayor, comptroller and public advocate - must collect a minimum of 3,750 signatures from registered voters from their political party by Thursday. With Mr. Spitzer's name recognition and three million Democrats in the city, this should not be a difficult task to complete, but he plans to flood the streets and supermarkets with some 100 signature gatherers starting Monday. "I am going to be on the street corners," he said. We will be out across the city. Mr. Spitzer's entry promises to shake a comptroller's contest that, until now, had been viewed as an all-but-certain victory for Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. Mr. Stringer could not be immediately reached on Sunday night. Mr. Spitzer resigned as governor in March 2008, after The New York Times reported he had patronized a high-end prostitution ring called Emperors Club V.I.P. He said he had been heartened and encouraged by encounters with ordinary New Yorkers over the past few years who have urged him to return to public office. Once such encounter occurred on Sunday afternoon, he said, after he finished a run near his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He described sitting on a park bench, and being approached by a woman, who began talking to him about her own experience aiding the homeless. "I appreciate what you did when you were in office," he said she told him. Nobody is perfect; I hope you run again. Mr. Spitzer added: "It happens all the time. People who walk with me on the street say, "People really do want you to get back in." " As he weighed whether to run for office this year, he said, he consulted with his wife and daughters, who he indicated signed off on the decision. His three daughters, who were young girls when he entered public life, are now adults, ranging in age from 19 to 23. "They are mature, they are grown up," he said. He added: "They have lived through a lot."