Eliot Spitzer on CNBC tells Wall St: ‘It Was Never Personal’ [VIDEO]

Democratic candidate for New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer, discusses his campaign strategy with Bill Griffith and Kelly Evans. He feels it is a great opportunity to talk about issues facing New Yorkers.

Transcript:

now, turning to eliot spitzer, back on the campaign trail again as he runs for new york city comptroller. he is getting his share ofhecklers as you would expect. you look at the record i have as attorney general and governor, assistant district attorney, the private sector, as teacher, how the opportunities reviewed my teaching, and i think people — so how will the man spitzerchallenging handle this? scott stringer is running against someone who had to leave office in disgrace after being caught in a prostitution scandal. let’s face it, eliot spitzer is also a household name around the country. joining us in a cnbc exclusive, we’re pleased to welcome the democratic candidate for new york city comptroller, scott stringer. pleasure to be here. this is either your worst nightmare or you’re licking yourchops having a guy like eliot spitzer come into your campaign at this point. the worst nightmare part is i’m a new father, 7-week-old son — congratulations. — and i have an 18-month-old son, and at my age, that’s a good thing. yeah. so on that level, it’s achallenge. but this is a great opportunity to get politics away from the circus and talk about the issues facing real new yorkers, people who have struggled in this city, people who are trying to pay their rent, get their kids a good education. the comptroller is an important office, because through trust — the worry is this is the opposite, it’s turning into a circus. right. i won’t go to the circus — you don’t have a choice. you’re being drossed, sir. no, no, i have to tell you, as i campaign, i talk to voters, they don’t want the circus. they want to know who will work for them. the comptroller has to have the back of the working people. you have to be responsible. think about it. the comptroller is part of $145 billion pension fund. you have to manage five different funds. you are on four — you’re a fiduciary on four of the five funds, a trustee. this is serious. you have to build consensus. you have to work collaboratively. why do you think he chose that position to go after? i mean, do you think he’s qualified to be new york city comptroller? you know, technically sound. but i think that i bring 20 years of a skill set being a consensus builder, but also someone who’s fiercelyindependent. i’ve taken on mike bloomberg when he’s wrong, but also worked collaboratively when we’ve found common ground. and going on in new york city, we’re in the heart of it now, the center of commerce. i have to tell you, we have people who are really struggling. they want real leadership. they don’t want the circus. they don’t want the drama. they don’t want that.and any emotion attached to this race should be about the people who were victimized after sandy. but between now and election day, all it’s going to be — look at the headlines already.look at the jokes. look what people are focused on. look, we’re showing clips of eliot spitzer almost crying, or crying, on morning joe already. that’s the focus. i’ll be on morning joetomorrow, and i won’t tear — you won’t cry. i do feel emotional about it. let’s talk about new york city and the post-hurricane economy. let’s talk about how we grow the economy. we’re the center for high-tech jobs. but those jobs have to benefiteverybody. the comptroller has to speak to those challenging economic issues. what can the comptroller do? that will be the central question as well. people will look at a guy like spitzer and go, look what he did as a.g. he did use the role, leveragedit, went after a lot of the big banks. what would you do when you’re going up against a guy like that? i’m going to talk about my record. i’m going to talk about my role on the pensionboard, a fiduciary. i have taken that role seriously, accomplished a lot.i’ve issued 50 reports on manhattan waste as boroughpresident. we built a office where we brought the best and brightest to work. the job of comptroller is not to be a day trader or to play