Hedge-funder Boykin Curry has sent out an astonishing pro-E
liot Spitzer e-mail to his Wall Street colleagues in a bid to build support for the former Love Gov in the financial community.
Despite Spitzer’s storied crusade against Wall Street, Curry — managing director of Eagle Capital Management — writes in the missive to his fellow money managers, “Even the arrogance and bullying that some disliked in a Governor would serve us well in a Comptroller.”
Curry, born into a prominent banking family, is the founder of lobbying group Democrats for Education Reform, which raised money for Spitzer when he was governor as well as for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, State Sen. Malcolm Smith (now facing federal corruption charges) and disgraced former Assemblyman Vito Lopez. The group counted the charter cap lift, signed by Spitzer in April 2007, as a major victory. Curry and his socialite designer wife, Celerie Kemble, are society fixtures and known for hosting parties for power players like Cory Booker, David Koch and Eric Schmidt.
Curry wrote in his e-mail about Spitzer, “We have someone who is indisputably brilliant and doggedly hard-working, who owes nothing to anyone (to say the least), and who is expert in business, law and finance, volunteering to serve as the watchdog of the city’s treasure.
“There is a temptation to visit punishment on someone who has betrayed us, but at some point the safety of workers’ pensions and the future of New York City is more important than that . . . Surely it is not worth risking the future fiscal stability of New York — and the interests of eight million citizens — simply to punish a man who is willing to throw himself back into public service. Eliot is vastly better for this job than Scott Stringer on every conceivable dimension.”
No surprise, the pitch hasn’t drawn worship on Wall Street. One insider summed it up: “Vote for Spitzer: He may be a whore-monger, but at least he’s an arrogant bully — and doesn’t owe anyone anything, because his daddy set him up just like mine did!” Curry didn’t get back to us.