The latest (Aug. 14) Quinnipiac University poll found Eliot Spitzer (left, with adviser Carl Andrews) with a commanding lead among likely black voters over Scott Stringer. (Rick Dembow N.Y. Post)
Eliot Spitzer has reached out to a controversial lobbyist with a host of shady pals in his bid for support from minority voters, The Post has learned.
Carl Andrews, a key figure in the Aqueduct bid-rigging scandal, is personally calling black community and religious leaders on behalf of the ex-governor’s campaign for comptroller.
Andrews, a former Brooklyn state senator, is close to Sen. John Sampson, the former Democratic conference leader who was indicted by the feds in a real-estate scam earlier this year.
A scathing 2009 state inspector general’s report accused Sampson of leaking to Andrews internal documents about rival bidders who wanted to run a casino at the track. Andrews was then a lobbyist for the Aqueduct Entertainment Group.
AEG subsequently jacked up its bid and won the multibillion-dollar franchise to run the racino.
The company was later disqualified amid the subsequent bid-rigging probe. But not before Andrews threw a party at his house celebrating AEG’s selection.
Among the guests were Sampson and Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith, the former Democratic majority leader who’s been charged in a federal indictment with trying to bribe his way onto the Republican ballot.
Andrews sued to try to quash a state IG’s subpoena requiring him to testify and submit documents in the Aqueduct probe.
He lost the court case, but suffered from a “bad memory’’ when probers tried to grill him about the casino.
Before resigning as governor in the hooker scandal, Spitzer — whose rival, Scottr Stringer, has The Post’s endorsement (inset) — had signed a law giving the Legislature a role in the selection process for the gambling franchise.
Incredibly, the law did not restrict lobbying and the process turned into a “free for all,” the IG report said.
But “the process was doomed from the outset by a statute born of political considerations and not the public good,” the inspector general charged.
Andrews, who served as a top aide to Spitzer both as attorney general and governor, also has strong ties to disgraced, ex-Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Clarence Norman, a convicted felon who served time for political corruption.
Spitzer spokesman Hari Sevugan referred to Andrews as a “longtime friend and adviser” who had donated his time to the campaign.
But one political operative laughed, “Carl doesn’t work for free,” a source said.
Andrews declined to comment.
