Eliot Spitzer’s Madam Of Five Years To Place New York Gubernatorial Bid

Ashley Dupre may not be the only big winner of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. The madam that helped set the governor up with prostitutes for five years, Kristin Davis, is now running for the state’s top executive job herself as a right-leaning independent.

Davis, who released a statement last month declaring her candidacy and was profiled by The Daily Beast, has ties to the New York Libertarian Party and is still deciding whether she will run with them or as an independent, either way she already has a platform: “legalization, regulation and taxation of prostitution, marijuana, and legalizing gay marriage.” “When was the last time a candidate put forward this kind of honest, radical platform?” she asks. It’s a good question.

The Daily Beast profiles a strong but shattered former sex worker with a legitimate bone to pick with New York’s prostitution laws, which, by declaring her a sex offender for her work in the prostitution business, forces her to interact with some of the more insidious elements of the criminal justice system. “I’m the only woman in a facility with 80 men who are there for Class 3 sex crimes. I’m sitting in this room with sex offenders who tell me how they stalked little children, horrible, atrocious things. They see me and they follow me,” she explains. Reforming prostitution laws is at the cornerstone of her campaign, although she has faced some opposition from within her own ranks for supporting regulation of the business rather than outright legalization, which she believes helps keep the workers safer. Author Tracy Quan notes:

Although [Davis] would “settle” for decriminalizing it, her favorite models—Nevada’s licensed brothels; Sweden’s anti-john laws—are viewed by many as authoritarian. Her stance presents a problem for sex worker activists who want to support her, but she insists it makes fiscal sense: “Taxation of pot and prostitution would bring in about $2.5 billion.” She likes the fact that, while buying sex is a crime in Sweden, selling it is not.

As for campaign organization, Davis says on her website she is counting on significant manpower from “supporters as diverse as Northern California Pot farmers, Hip-Hop artists, Gay and lesbian friends an even some conservative businessmen. My friends at G-Unit, Penthouse magazine and High Times have both encouraged me.” She is confident in her fundraising ability, and even more in her campaign team. She counts libertarian Republican and famous Spitzer enemy Roger Stone among her consultants, and her communications director Andrew Miller brings some political weight to the team with his experience in the Tea Party movement.

The news comes just as Governor David Paterson, caught up in an over-hyped, underwhelming corruption scandal, announced he will not seek reelection. As Paterson is not the first (nor probably last!) governor to pseudo-step down in disgrace, New Yorkers’ attitudes towards their government and the people they elect are leaving the field wide open for anyone, from the most conservative Tea Party activist to a registered sex offender, to give it a shot– think California in 2003. And as Davis herself concludes her candidacy statement, this year “New York voters will have a chance to vote to legalize prostitution, pot and gay marriage next November. What could be more exciting?”

[photo via Kristen Davis official website]

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