“Here we ho again.”

— New York Post, on the political comeback attempt by former New York Gov. Eiliot Spitzer (D).

Ben Smith: “Eliot Spitzer’s attempt to return to public life — with a perilously late entrance into the race for New York City Comptroller — was being compared to Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign about 20 times a minute on Twitter, last I checked.”

“But Spitzer has basically nothing in common with Weiner, aside from their low body fat, and shared (and lightly observed) Jewish faith. Weiner is a talented politician who left Congress with no major legislative accomplishments and everything to prove. Spitzer was a major force in American public life for eight years despite having no particular talent for politics. Weiner’s online romances brought him down because they were weird. Spitzer’s ordinary sin — any number of politicians have survived prostitution scandals — ended his tenure as governor because his governorship was already going terribly.”

Spitzer himself told the New York Observer of Weiner’s comeback attempt: “I don’t see any parallels between that race and this one.”

Eliot Spitzer (D), “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 have forgiven him his previous misconduct,” the New York Times reports.

Said Spitzer: “I’m hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it.”

“Spitzer, an aggressive watchdog over Wall Street when he served as attorney general, wants to overhaul the sometimes overlooked office into a more activist one, given the power the comptroller exercises over the city’s pension funds and city spending.”

A source tells the New York Post that Spitzer “will self fund his campaign and plans to spend millions if he needs to.”

“Written off by election experts and shunned by the political establishment,” Anthony Weiner (D) “has once again upended popular conceptions about him, vaulting to the front of the race for mayor,” the New York Times reports.

“Many political insiders are puzzled by Mr. Weiner’s strength in recent polls… But interviews with more than two dozen New York City voters over the past several days reveal a range of reasons for the attraction to Mr. Weiner.”

“One is a fascination with the celebrity he has become: an encounter with Mr. Weiner on the street is an event that other candidates cannot replicate, given his fame and outsize personality. Another factor is his aggressive manner — those who have watched him say he seems ready to fight for their needs. But other voters say it is Mr. Weiner’s flaws, and his attempts to make peace with the past, that are making them take notice.”

Michelle Cottle: “The American electorate is, if not abandoning its hard-core sex-police phase, at least loosening up on the terms of punishment.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) told the New York Times that he’s “very concerned” about Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s (D) close ties with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Said Pallone: “I’m very concerned about his close relationship with the governor because I don’t think he has used that relationship to advance a progressive or Democratic agenda.”

New York City mayoral candidate Joe Lhota (R) called on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D) ex-girlfriends “to come forward and talk about any dirty deed he may have done,” the New York Post reports.

Said Lhota: “I hope women will come to the right conclusion after enough women come out and talk about what it was like to be with him and date him and things like that. New York women have to decide for themselves if this is someone who has the character to be mayor.”

“We love Weiner and you can quote me on that!” shouted 25-year-old
Justin Curtis after Anthony Weiner passed in New York City’s gay pride parade, Politicker reports.

Responded Weiner: “You guys know that’s my name right? We’re not just saying that.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) veered to the right this morning, twice touting himself as a “conservative Republican” and taking a shot at President Obama within the first 10 minutes of a town hall meeting, the Newark Star Ledger reports.

Said Christie: “I know when you look at Washington right now, you shake your head at a president who can’t figure out how to lead, at a Congress that only 11 percent of the people in the last poll I saw approve of the job they’re doing.”

Harry Enten looks at the New York City Democratic mayoral race and finds that Christine Quinn, William Thompson or Anthony Weiner could advance to a runoff.

“I went through the polling that I could find since 1989, and I can’t find a single poll this late in the mayoral primary campaign when the leading candidate had less than 26% and certainly not less than 20%. There simply is no precedence for this in the past thirty years…. When the candidates are polling so poorly and close to each other anything can happen.”

A new Quinnipiac poll in New York City finds Christine Quinn (D) barely leading the Democratic mayoral race with 19%, followed by Anthony Weiner at 17% and William Thompson at 16%.

Said pollster Maurice Carroll: “Thompson’s spurt — no doubt spurred in part by his endorsement last week by the United Federation of Teachers — is the big news in this new poll. The other news is Quinn’s slide and that’s more puzzling. A few polls ago, she was edging close to the magic 40 percent.”

First Read notes voter turnout was “absurdly low” in yesterday’s U.S. Senate special election.

“Markey received more than 640,000 votes — almost half of the nearly 1.1 million votes Martha Coakley got in her losing effort in 2010. And as we’ve pointed out, this low turnout isn’t just in Massachusetts; it has also occurred in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Virginia. Folks, there’s something happening — an aggressive passiveness has taken hold with the electorate, at least with semi-casual voters.”

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) defeated Gabriel Gomez (R) in the special U.S. Senate election race in Massachusetts, the AP reports.

A new NBC News/Marist Poll finds former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) jumped ahead of Christine Quinn (D) in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary by five points, 25% to 20%.

Last month, Weiner trailed Quinn by 5 points in a similar survey.

A new Suffolk poll finds Rep. Edward Markey (D) holds a comfortable lead over Gabriel Gomez (R), 52% to 42%, with just a day to go before the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

Said pollster David Paleologos: “These numbers suggest that tomorrow night Ed Markey will make the transformation from congressman to senator-elect. All eyes will be watching to see how Markey’s final vote tally stacks up against Elizabeth Warren’s eight-point win over Scott Brown last November.”

“I’m confident I’m going to win. But as a famous general once said in World War II, I shall return.”

— Gabriel Gomez (R), quoted by The Hill, hinting at another bid if he loses tomorrow’s special election in Massachusetts.

Even though not a single poll has shown Gabriel Gomez (R) ahead in the Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election, his aides — many of whom worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign — “are still predicting a shocker, saying low-turnout special elections are notoriously unpredictable,” Politico reports.

A new Western New England University poll finds Rep. Ed Markey (D) leading Gabriel Gomez (R) by eight points in the special U.S. Senate election, 49% to 41%, with 9% undecided.

“The poll also found what political observers have noted all along – that voters are simply not engaged in this race in the way they were with the 2012 U.S. Senate race between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren.”

A new Emerson College poll in Massachusetts finds Rep. Ed Markey (D) leading Gabriel Gomez (R) by ten points in next week’s special U.S. Senate election, 51% to 41%.