Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Eliot Spitzer's 'Manhattan Madam' Running for Governor on Prostitution Platform

By Heather Grossmann | March 1, 2010 1:45pm | Updated on March 1, 2010 1:35pm
Kristin Davis announced her candidacy for governor at a Midtown Manhattan hotel Monday morning. March 1, 2010
Kristin Davis announced her candidacy for governor at a Midtown Manhattan hotel Monday morning. March 1, 2010
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Heather Grossmann

By Heather Grossmann

DNAinfo News Editor

MIDTOWN EAST — New York’s gubernatorial race heated up Monday when "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis announced her candidacy.

In front of a poster emblazoned with a naked woman silhouette, a marijuana leaf and a "P2" symbol, representing her pro-prostitution, pro-marijuana platform, the infamous provider of Eliot Spitzer's escorts said she's running as an independent and an "advocate of real reform."

“Eliot Spitzer is symptomatic of the type of career politician who has brought this state to the brink of disaster,” Davis said, as the five women standing behind her — including one former "Penthouse Pet"— applauded.

“If we do not hold the Chief Executive Officer to the same standards as that or an ordinary citizen — what does that say about our system?” Davis asked, referring to her arrest and time served on Rikers Island while Spitzer “walked away unpunished.”

Davis' proposals include bringing in new revenue to the state via the legalization, regulation and taxation of prostitution and marijuana. She is also a proponent of gay marriage.

The former madam will have to collect several thousand signatures to petition her way onto the statewide ballot.

Davis is the author of a tell-all titled, “The Manhattan Madam: Sex, Drugs, Scandal and Greed Inside America's Most Successful Prostitution Ring." Her Web site features a picture of Alex Rodriguez, who she claims to have set up with women and dated, and images of herself in skimpy lingerie.

During her announcement she referred to her famous "black book" as "very powerful thing" that contains the name of 10,000 of the world's most famous and powerful men, all of whom she said patronized her services. Davis said that she would stay mum on the book's contents, but if fear of revelations of what was inside helped drive campaign contributions, she was fine with that.

She does not think that Spitzer will be voting for her.

Now that Gov. David Paterson has bowed out of the race and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is the presumed Democratic powerhouse candidate, Davis has her sights set on him, saying that she’d very much like to “hear his proposals for bringing new revenue into the state,” and that she hoped to debate him.