Vacco's campaign manager, Matt Behrmann, said in a statement that Spitzer had  sunk to a new and despicable low by attempting to capitalize on the murder of a physician in order to garner votes.   It's possible that New York politics has never seen anything as crass as Eliot Spitzer's willingness to (exploit) the unfortunate murder of Slepian as a steppingstone for his own political ambitions,  Berhrmann said.  
 Verb: exploit
Yes