Gubernatorial candidate Kristin Davis with a supporter Photo credit: Sara Dover, NBC Niteside
Political parties love to party. And no party parties like the Anti-Prohibition Party, whose candidate for governor was the former “Manhattan Madam” who claimed Eliot Spitzer as a client.
The neophyte candidate, 35-year-old Kristin Davis, garnered only about 22,000 votes Tuesday—less than half the 50,000 needed for the party to remain on statewide ballots for the next four years. Still, Ms. Davis celebrated her foray into the rough-and-tumble world of New York politics at an election night party with her coterie of eccentric supporters—a drug dealer’s son, an actress in pornographic videos, a reality TV star.
“It’s the hottest soon to be governor!” said one supporter, a partner at a white-shoe law firm in New York.
Ms. Davis campaigned on a platform to legalize prostitution and marijuana and to enact gay marriage legislation. She launched her bid at the behest of political operative Roger Stone, a longtime foe of Mr. Spitzer who once claimed to be the FBI source who discovered from a prostitute he met at a bar that Mr. Spitzer wore his socks in the sack.
She’s paid her dues to society but she said she was a political scapegoat in a system that gives politicians special treatment.
“Politicians” she said. “They’re all corrupt.”
Mr. Stone, whose political thuggery is immortalized with a tattoo on his back of Richard Nixon, became Ms. Davis’ political strategist and guiding force. He mingled with supporters at the bar of the Taj lounge in the Flatiron district, sipping a vodka martini. Pedro Escobar Jr., the son of a notorious Colombian drug lord, stood near the door. Mr. Escobar, who has the word “Real” tattooed on his head, said he supported the “weed thing” and then talked up his efforts to commercialize the Escobar family name through a clothing line, cigars and a reality TV show.
Vinny Parco, a private investigator who had his own reality TV show on Court TV called Parco P.I., voted for Ms. Davis–“What the hell,” he said, “why not? I like her platform.” He came to the bar to show his support. A porn star, Brittany Andrews, apologized for coming late to the party. She had gone on a date—a failure, she explained—earlier in the evening.
Of course, the Anti-Prohibition Party election night party was not the only scene in town. The Green Party gathered at a sedate pub near Union Square. And the Democrats and Republicans commandeered the ballrooms at the Sheraton and Hilton hotels a block a part in midtown.
But Ms. Davis’s party, if not her candidacy, was certainly more unusual. Ms. Davis’ eyes perked up as her running mate, 49 year-old Tanya Gendelman, a Russian émigré and lawyer from Brighton Beach, sidled over to greet her. The first all-female gubernatorial ticket in New York history shared a hug.
A friend and publicist from Penthouse magazine, who helped Ms. Davis write her memoir, The Manhattan Madam, said the magazine had helped the campaign raise several thousand dollars auctioning dinner with a Penthouse “pet” at the Penthouse Executive Club on the west side of Manhattan.
“Penthouse is all about freedom,” said Lainie Speiser. “We don’t believe prostitution, marijuana or gay marriage is going to hurt anyone.”
Mr. Stone, who got his start in politics as a kid working on Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, said he was getting too old for campaigns. Wearing a pin-striped wool suit, he wiped the sweat from his tanned brow. Mr. Stone supported Carl Paladino, whose campaign manager, Michael Caputo, was a Stone protégé. But Ms. Davis’ campaign captured his libertarian leanings. Her notoriety, he said, made it possible.
“If she were a school teacher,” he said. “Nobody would be here tonight.”
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Special thanks to reporter Sara Dover of NBC Niteside for use of her photograph.
